GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Or should I say Gung Hay Fat Linda. This is the feast that Holly and I cooked to celebrate Chinese New Year. It should be the Year of the pig, not the rat because we PIGGED OUT. Good grub for sure! We had oodles of noodles with beef and broccoli, we made Won tons and fried shrimp chips, rice and I made a yummy chocolate cake for dessert. My fat rolls were gettin busy for sure! After eating we all played Guitar Hero. I think we hooked the Cranes. I am seriously addicted to it. I have even mastered a few songs also. Good times! Ok, I hear Chris in there right now playing Rock You Like a Hurricane. I feel a competition brewing.!!

I have way more to blog about or should I say rant about, but I have a headache from Hell and I hear some Advil, my boyfriends Ben and Jerry and AI calling my name. Have a great night!

R.I.P TRANSFORMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


UUUUGGG! Where do I begin? These have been the death of me since Christmas Day. I am tired of picking up little pieces of car parts, being asked by a certain 3 year old to "fix this" who cant make up his mind to have it a car or a flippin robot! They are NOT EASY to put back together either. I would love to meet the person (I am sure it was a man) who invented these.

Am I the only loser with this issue?

Ok, I will move on. I have been running around like a crazed maniac this whole week. My son has been trying out this week for the HS Golf team. I have to run and pick him up from school and seriously take him all over town to the different golf courses around here. They are all up on these windy hills also. I will be glad when this week is up!
Chris was home sick from work on Monday and Tuesday and then Bowen was sick yesterday. I also had Lawson in to the Drs on Monday for his yearly check up and shots. I am behind on shots so we are playing catch up. I also had them give him a Flu shot, only to have that give him a fever and a serious case of whiny babyitis. Yee haw he is back to his usual clingy self today. :)

Well not much else going on here. I need to head off to go get boy #2 from school. Good times! Oh! on one good note, I made my plane reservations for my girls trip next month. Hold on and listen right now for a big Hallelujah from here in N. Cali.!!!! I am so excited.

Ok, I am off to be Chauffer Joe now............

This is for my sister. She gave me crap about Lawsons toe picture in my last post. SHe told me that it looked like he had toe jam in between his toes and that his little to nails looked funky. I can assure you that his toes were clean and there was no creepy crud growing on his feet. Well how does his foot look now???? I spruced it up for you Julie. He was so cute when I did it. He kept looking at his feet all day.

This weekend was kind of a bummer. Chris was sick ALL WEEKEND... I mean on the couch dead to the world, hackin up all kinds of unmentionable things. Lets just say that I have had the Lysol Spray working on overtime at my house. Friday we did get away with Holly and Mike for a quick dinner. We had alot of fun and I got to sneak away last night for a GNO. My friend Maressa is having a baby soon and didnt want a shower so a bunch of us met for dinner at Cheescake and then saw 27 Dresses. We had a great time. If I were a good wife and mother I should have stayed at home and held down the fort, but I have been excited all week to get out with the girls and have some fun, so I abandoned the sick house. I think the boys ended up fending for themselves as Chris was in a Nyquil induced coma. I came home to a house that was still standing and 6 kids so all was well :) Well I hope everyone had a great weekend. I did get to watch Predident Hinckleys Funeral and I was so touched by all of the great stories and memories that were shared. He was such a great man!

Oh today we were suppose to get together with the Cranes for Superbowl festivities, but with all of the cooties in my house we just stayed home and I ended up making pizzas with the kids. They were pretty good. Usually Chris is the pizza maker, but the duty was mine today. Here is a picture of the mini ones the kids made. Heres to a better week.............................................

**************TOE UPDATE*************************

So here is a picture of that nasty little toe. It is looking so much better. It looks like I wont be needing to whip out the weedwacker after all!:):):) I am still waiting for that Mother of the Year award to come. Oh and Shannon, I do vaccuum Miss Smarty Pants:)



So supposedly there is an official longest day of the year I think sometime in June, but I beg to differ!
I think that I had mine last night for sure!! It was the day from hell if you dont mind me saying. First of all I went to Costco and absolutley stuffed the hole in my face with a tasty hot dog AND all of the yummy samples. It must be because it is Super Bowl Weekend because they were sampling all sorts of stuff, like meatballs, chips and salsa, mozzarella sticks, pizza. MMMMM, so good. That was a good part of my day.

It all started in a downward spiral around 3. That is when I start picking up the little darlings. It must be from the stresses of the school day, but they always start right into arguing over seats and who is going to do Guitar Hero first, yackety yackety. Drives me nuts! After picking them all up I came home and started making dinner. I made Beef Barley stew. Not a hard dinner to make, but a little time consuming. I then had to help "encourage" all four of them into getting their homework done. It always ends up with me counting or yelling, threatening or something else to get them going. Some of them needed help and it is always at the same time. On top of that I am cooking dinner and entertaining a 1 and 3 year old. Good times. Wednesdays are also hard because Chris has Scouts and the 2 older boys have scouts and YM at different locations. Crazy. I am sure that I am not the only one who has these wonderful days, but it is these days that I feel like a total loser of a parent. I did start off today with a family prayer with the boys. I do try to do this regularly, but I forget many times. Today has been a better day, and it will only get better with Lost starting up tonight :) I hope I didnt depress anyone with my Debbie Downer post. Well I am off to start dinner and give a spelling test to Landon. Let the fun begin!

MORE DRAMA!!!!

If you are all wondering where to send the "MOTHER OF THE YEAR" award, that would be right here! I dont know if you can tell from this picture or not, but this is my poor little Lawsons foot. We gave him his bath last night and as I was putting on his pjs I saw this and almost passed out. One of his toes and part of the next one had hair wrapped tightly around his toes. I mean TIGHT! It was cutting off the circulation and all nasty looking. I pulled off the hair from what I could tell. It was so hard to see for sure, because it was so dang swollen.
After we decided we got it all, we soaked it to see if the swelling went down. We were trying to decide if we should take him to the Drs or not. It went down a little and it looks slightly better today. We will see how it is in the morning.

Has anyone ever had that happen before?? They say that with little boys you need to be careful to make sure that hair doesnt get tightly wrapped around their peepee, but i never heard about their toes.

I still have cooties going on here. Landon is not feeling too good. He stayed home "sick" earlier this week. I think he is not faking this one. Looks like the start to another fabulous week :(

I am sure all of you heard about the passing of President Hinkley. It is very sad, but I am so happy that he is finally back with his sweet eternal companion. :)

We bought Guitar Hero 3 this weekend. Dang it is hard. I am not feeling as cocky about this game as I do with Singstar. Iam getting skooled by the boys .......... Have a great night!

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been raining ALL DAY LONG here today. I do love the rain, but not all day. It is a little depressing. My days this week have consisted of ear infections, THE NASTIEST poopy diapers ever known to man kind, boogar noses, stomach aches, a few sleepless nights, laundry up the wazoo, and the list goes on. Did you notice not one thing on this list consisted of me having lunch with my friends??? NOOOOOOOO! I know that sounds shallow, but I really do enjoy social interaction during the week. It is great to sit and chit chat and vent with the girls. I did get a quick bite to eat at the Walmart Mcds with Holly. Jealous???????

POOR BABY........ This picture pretty much summed up my day today. I didnt even get dressed until I had to go pick up the other kids. I snapped this picture of my little clingon this morning. Notice the sexy leg in the picture?? That would be me and my manly pajama pants. I dont see how my man can leave all that every morning! LOL

Tonight I did get to escape to eat with Chris. We grabbed a quick bite at Tomatina and then to the grocery store. We came home and watched Bourne Ultimatum. Well I am off to do a load of smelly Pjs. I dont think that there is a diaper out there that can stand up to Lawson diarrhea. too much info I know.

This weekend is our Stake Conf. I really want to go to the adult broadcast tomorrow. We will see how the troups are feeling. Hope you have a great weekend!

"I WISH I COULD QUIT YOU!"


I told Chris that I was going to do a "Brokeback Mountain" post about his Mans Golf weekend. LOL


This past weekend Chris and some of his friends went to Oregon to golf. Who does that??? I thought it was a little wacky to drive 8 freakin hours to go golfing. I certainly wouldnt drive 8 hours to go to "the best mall" . Well maybe I would. :)) Supposedly it is "one of the better" Golf courses, yadda yadda yadda. He had a great time and luckily my SIL came to keep me company.

Chris deserved his weekend o' fun and next month it is my turn. It is almost time for my yearly girls weekend to the OC. I am so excited. Last year, I was not able to go.
Lawson was only a couple of months old and I couldnt leave my sweet man with a new baby and
all of the boys. But this year.... Hasta La Vista baby!!!!!! Did I mention how excited I
was????

Well my moment of peace has once again come to an end. Lawson has a double ear infection and is very clingy. I also had a couple other boys home sick today. Hopefully I can avoid all of these cooties and not get sick. I am rarely sick. It must be all of the junk food I eat right??? A pound of chocolate a day keeps the Dr away! I wanted to post pictures of my crazy long weekend with the 11 kiddies, but I couldnt get them downloaded. We had a fun weekend and I will post about all of our adventures later. Have a great night..

We are all still alive here. I will have a better update of our adventures, or lack thereof later.

I just wanted to type this cute little comment that I overheard Hayden saying to his cousin. They are sitting here playing cars together and Hayden got up and said he was going to "turn off the sky" as he was shutting the shutters. Too cute.

I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. I am taking advantage of this quiet moment (babies sleeping and older kids at park) to catch up on blogs. :):)

Is it really Friday already???

This week has sure flown by. I am home today cleaning up my house. I usually try to go somewhere everyday when most of my kids are in school. That way I am not so stir crazy being home with my precious children ALL AFTERNOON! LOL I also find it easier being out and about during the day with Lawson. That little guy follows me everywhere. I cant even escape to the Porcelain Palace without him crying at the door! I can honestly say that I am followed around my men all day long.

Today I am home for the sole purpose of cleaning my house. What I am about to tell you right now might make you extremely jealous of me . My SIL is coming for the long weekend with her 5 children!!! I know, for sure you all want to be me right now. I am going to have a house of 11 children. Good times! No, it should be fun. We get along really well and so do the kids. It will be just like a zoo. If it gets too wild, we will just lock them all up in rooms and go out for a Girls Night Out. HEEHEE. Just kidding.

Well the dust is calling my name so I better stay on track. Have a good weekend and I will try to keep you up to day on all of the crazy mayhem, I am sure you will be waiting on pins and needles.

Oh, and this cute little bugger is walking. He looks like a penguin, so dang cute! (Picture above) I would take a better picture of him, but Chris has my camera. Oh, I will for sure be posting about that subject later!!! :)

*****GOOD TIP ALERT*******

Yes, even I every once in awhile have a good find or tip that I will share. I found a great website for baby undershirts. It is so hard to find the long sleeve Onesies around here. I love them. I put one under Lawsons short sleeve shirts, so that he can still wear them during the winter.

The website is www.Essentialwhites.com . I just got them today and they are so nice. They are almost like the material of the Layers or Shades Tshirts. They even sent them wrapped in tissue with a scented sachet. They are a little pricey, but worth it.

Ok I am off to go do my daily reffereeing............

SUNDAY AT THE NUTFARM

I just wanted to share a quick little story about my crazy Sunday. It has been a little crazy here at our house lately. I am entering the fun and most delightful teenage years. I can hardly wait! My sweet 14 year old has been a little moody and just flat out not very nice to be around at times. This morning started out in the pits. I always try to be on top on things, trying to get all of the clothes and such ready for church the night before. You know, because "Saturday is a special day" I think that whoever wrote that song needs to be shot. (just kidding). I would hardly call it special when it comes to getting all of the Sunday biz done. Long story short, it was nonstop fighting and yelling and trying to get everyone out the door at a reasonable time. Not an easy task! I went to church totally crabby and ready to mow down anyone in my path.

Of course all of the church talks and lessons were great and got me back into the frame of mind that I needed to be in. I love that. I came home refreshed and then tried to mend all of the chaos that I had contributed to in the morning. I read in the Spencer W Kimball book from last year that we need to make sure that we are on top of everything on Sunday mornings. It is so important to be ready on time and make things run a smooth as possible so that we can be at church on time to listen to the preludes and feel the spirit. I am going to try and get my big rump out of bed earlier on Sundays so that I can be ready early and be more available to get my kids going and to be ready for all of the roadbumps.

Now that I have run off on another subject I will get back to my "quick" little story. After dinner we decided to play Monopoly. We got the new electronic version for the kids for Christmas. It is the more pimped up version of Monopoly. So fun. My money was quickly running dry and my sweet little BoBo (who was kicking everyones trash at the time) offered to pay one of my debts. Isnt that sweet??? I didnt even ask. It made me think that even though I was running around like a screaming Banshee this morning, and feeling really bad about how I had contributed to everyones crappy mood, that my kids still love their mom, even when she is not at her best (or even near it). I have awesome boys even when they are sassy and somtimes make me want to turn to the "hardstuff". You know, chocolate. They keep me on my toes and I am so thankful for them.

Hope I didnt send anyone into a permanent coma from boredom. Have a great week.

*****INSPIRED*******


I have been in a blogging rut for a few days. I have not had a whole lot to say-(shocking for some people to comprehend!) I have not had anything too exciting to blog about. Life has been boring at the Smith houshold. I shouldnt say boring, but lets just say, noneventful.

I have been loving this time of the new year. It is wonderful to read about everyones resolutions, goals, diet plans, organizational tips, spiritual, physical and mental overhauls. I am in need of all of these! I have not even let my brain entertain any of these ideas for myself yet. Trust me, I will, I just havent been motivated to do so.

I have been so inspired and moved by everyones blogs. I am in awe of so many of you fabulous women. You inspire me try to be a better wife, mother, cook, friend etc... Believe me I am a constant work in progress.....

I am approaching my 1 year anniversary of entering the blogging world, and have enjoyed every minute of it. I dont know where I would be without blogging! It is where I turn to vent out my stress, and frustrations of being a blessed mother of 6 little men. Oh, I know what I should be doing--I should be cleaning a toilet, doing laundry and not neglecting my little man who is upstairs getting into who knows what. :0

Well I better get going and pick up a bit before my sweet hubby gets home. I told him he needed to take me on a HOT date tonight. I told him that he had to work for the milk and he just cant get it from the cow for free.! LOL He quickly told me that I was hardly FREE. Funny guy. Wait, did I really compare myself to a cow????? I guess so. Well I hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Tired!

I was reading Michelles blog earlier and I couldnt have said it better. I AM TIRED!! I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. I have a GINORMOUS pile of laundry to be folded and put away, my house is a stye and I still have my Christmas crud outside and piled high in the garage to be stored away. I am tired of have NO WILLPOWER WHATSOEVER, when it comes to shoveling food in my mouth. My hand is like the Energizer Bunny--It keeps going and going and going to my mouth! I have bags under my eyes and I feel puffy. I am sure that the pound bag of Peanut M&Ms I ate this week didnt help any.

On a happier note, I was able to get to lunch with some of my friends today. It was a last minute "hey, lets go celebrate back to school" and it was much needed. I am no DR, but I am sure that the 4-5 Diet Cokes I downed at lunch are contributing to my lack of energy tonight. I am probably coming off my caffeine "high".

Well I am off to do my nightly business. This mountain of clothes is not going to fold itself! Chris took the kids to his Basketball game tonight so I am just hanging out with my 2 little boyfriends.
Good times. Have a great night...............

I am back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah! It is good to be home. This picture to the right is only a fraction of the crap that is awaiting to be put away. We got home last night and I immediately go into psycho mode and try to have all of the suitcases unpacked and things put away. Today, even though it is Sunday, I am trying to get my Christmas things put away so that I can get my house is some order before all of the mayhem starts tomorrow.

We had a fun trip. We didnt do to many exciting things. We hung out with family, cruised the strip, shopped, saw movies, went four wheeling and stuff like that. It was fun to visit with family. We stayed with my parents and I am almost positive that they did the happy dance as we pulled away. I think that my kids are pretty well behaved for the most part, but lets face it- they are boys! They dont sit and play dollies and color. They wrestle, jump around, and are kind of loud. My parents are use to having a quiet house, so several times they headed to their "happy place" to escape the chaos. What can you do?

I am so bummed. My cameras batteries died a few days into our trip and dumb me didnt bring the charger. I missed alot of great photo moments.

Well I am excited to be back and to get back to blogging. I missed it! I thought that I would be able to do some while on my trip, but it didnt work out. I had Chris' laptop and I hate using those. I am only skilled at using one of his laptops! LOL

I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Only 12 more hours till school starts-------------------Yeah!!!!

One more thing. While I was in Vegas, I helped my sister start up her blog- Yes, she actually needed help. She is my much older sister Julie. HEHEHE. She has been a blogger stalker to many of you for a long time and now she is coming out of the closet. I will put her on my sidebar. I am sure she would love it if you stopped by to say hi!

I will put a few more pictures from our trip up.

I had to kick my kids off of the computer for a minute to type this. They have anxiously been tracking Santas every step on Norad. It is tto cute. I am surprised that almost ALL of them are happily tracking. :)

We are knee deep in preparing our Big Christmas Eve meal, I am even attempting homemade rolls! They are a freakin gooey mess, but we will see how well they turn out. We are also making Gingerbread houses and just hanging out together. There have been no fighting or name calling! I guess the day is still young.

We will be heading to Vegas this week and we are excited to see our families. It has been since April that we have seen most of them. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New year. This isnt goodbye. You cant get rid of me that easily. When I am gone I am going to be checking blogs regularly. Like I said before, there is not a whole lot to do in Vegas. Maybe I will take up gambling or stripping afterall. That would be a hoot. I think that people would pay me to NOT take off my clothes!! That was bad I know.

Well I better get going. I am being attacked by my Santa Stalkers!

I hope everyone enjoys being with their loved ones at this special time of the year.

Yippeeeeeee!

I finally get some alone time. Chris took the boys out to deliver some Pixie stuff to some people and I am home getting ready to go to a party.

I think I can say that I am done with my shopping!!! I am done physically and I am done mentally with all of this craziness. Now I can just relax and enjoy! I am even done with my baking. I kind of had a case of schitsophrenia(sp) of the goodie making. I first started out making sugar cookies. I made the dough and baked half of the cookies only to get bored with them. I then moved on to Hot Fudge Sauce. Then yesterday I made Rolo Cookies. OH! MY! GOSH! They are to die for. If you havent made them, you need to. I even got the "these are the best" from my man. Today I made Resees PB Cup cookies. Another good one. I am getting an even bigger lard butt from all of the taste testing, not to mention all of the fabulous plates of stuff from friends. Who knows what I will move on to next.

My kids are getting excited to go to Vegas after Christmas. They are excited to see their cousins and Grandparents. Good times. I am excited also, but if you know Vegas, there is not a whole lot to do. Especially if you are not into Gambling, Vegas Shows or Stripper Poles! LOL I am from Vegas so I am allowed to say that. If any of you Vegas girls have any good family activitiy ideas, I would love to hear them.

I have had a pretty mellow week. I have even been able to have 2 lunches with friends this week. I am so lucky. Tomorrow, I am hoping to get some VT done and that is it. It is also a minimum school day tomorrow-------AWWWWWWWWW bummer! There are too many of those! Is it not bad enough that I have to entertain them for 2 weeks???????? :)

Well I am off to party. I want to thank all of you creative girls for giving me such fun ideas this holiday season. I have had a blast trying new recipes and fun activities with my boys. I am so impressed by everyones creativity. Something that I severely lack!!!! Have a great night!!!

I just finished watching The Notebook for the first time. Can I just say that I LOVED that movie! It was so sweet. I even made Chris watch it with me. He would never admit it, but I know he liked it........I was fighting back the tears at the end, such a great story.

Is it over yet???????????????????

I hate to say this, but I am ready for this whole Christmas crap to be over with!!

Dont get me wrong, I love the holidays for the most part, but the traffic, long lines and rude people are not bringing out the best in me. Today Holly and I ran to the mall and I think I seriously was scaring her with all of my "road rage", or should I say "people rage". Every moron in the world was out and about today. It is even rubbing off on my sweet man. Tonight Chris and I dropped the kiddies off at home after Judsons school program and ran some errands. Some girl and her boyfreind cut us off and then decided to go really slow in front of us trying to bug us. Chris sometimes follows a little too close for my comfort and she suddenly stops in front of us. Again trying to tick us off I am sure. We just kind of rolled our eyes at them. Whatever!

I have been oober busy this week. I feel like Betty Crocker on speed. I have made homemade Hot fudge sauce, cookies, and even those cute Cinnamon ornaments Rachel had posted on her blog.
My boys and I had a great time making them. I HIGHLY recommend making them if you get the time. They make your house smell awesome! It even covered up the dirty diaper smell in my house! I would just suggest that you exercise a little more common sense then I did and spray the pan before you put them on to bake---DUH! I think that only 2 of the ornaments survived the slaughter of me trying to get them off of the pan. But good fun anyway.

I am so trying not to gain a ton of weight this season. It is so dang hard! My cute little size 0 freind Maressa has been trying out new yummy brownie bar recipes from her new cookbook. Even though I LOVE being the taste tester, I keep teasing her that she has to pay for me to go to WW or Jenny Craig or something. Man she can bake! We have also been dropped off some fabulous goodies from friends. I just need to learn when to shut my pie hole is all.

Well it is late and if you can believe it my kids even just went to bed. Chris and I got home late from shopping and we just let the kids hang out for a while. This is a very rare occasion, for sure! They are usually in bed right at bed time, earlier if I can help it!! LOL

Hope eveyone has a great weekend!

PS I took a picture of my kids after church last week. Hopefully my picture of my little hooligans will distract from my Debby Downer post!

PSS I love my tree. It isnt all fancy shmancy and that is fine with me. My kids decorate it every year and it is filled with fun ornaments that the kids have made over the years. Great memories.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




Today is Hollys birthday. I wont say how old she is, because that would tell how old I am also. We wouldnt want that.

I met Holly 11 years ago, when we first moved out here from Vegas. We didnt know anyone and she was one of the first people we met. I think we became instant friends and the rest is history!

Holly is a great person. She is willing to serve and is always there for you.
We have a lot of fun and our kids love each other. They are almost like brothers and sister. Poor Tyler is the only girl out of them all.

Here are a few things about Holly:

She is very organized and is always thinking ahead.
Shes crafty - sewing, stamping etccccc......
She throws a mean party and always has lots of yummy food.
She is a great mother
She is a wonderful friend
She plays the violin ( just kidding, she plays the flute) I always confuse the 2 (duh)
She loves to travel
She loves Law and Order--DUNDUN (Law and Order sound)
She loves the theatre
Is the family "handy man"
Completed a "Half Marathon" (running-eeeewwwww!)

I could go on and on........

Hope you have a great Birthday Holly. Thanks for being a great friend and for becomming friends with a weirdo from Vegas. Love ya!

One year older and wiser too- Happy Birthday- to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE


TWINKLING LIGHTS

THE SMELL OF EVERGREEN FILLING THE AIR

DECORATIVE ORNAMENTS ADORNING THE TREE

SHINING STAR UP HIGH

PRETTY PACKAGES TO BE UNWRAPPED

AND.....................................................................................................................................................





A GUN???????????????????????????????????????????????????????

This is what I found last night when I came to turn on the tree lights last night. Only in a house full of boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I am late at doing this, but technically it is still her Bday. It is my sister Lauras birthday today. She is 13 months younger then me. I know these are funky pictures, but they are all that I have. I wish I had some of us when we were younger, but they are all back in Vegas. She will kill me for some of the choices I made, but seriously it was slim pickins!

Laura and I were best friends growing up. We did everything together. We had the same friends, and went together seriously EVERYWHERE. We even would babysit together. We would babysit together and split the pay. We got ripped off for sure. We would usually only charge a dollar and hour and split it!!!! Crazy! We were not very smart business girls. :)

I was very shy growing up. I usually drove everywhere and if we were going through a drive thru for food, I would make her talk into the speaker. Is that dumb or what? We loved going to the dances together, loved shopping and we hung out in HS.
We had a great childhood. Laura lives in AZ now with her family, so we dont get to see each other very much. We usually try to hook up in Vegas during Summer breaks or Christmas breaks so we can have the kids see each other, but we try to talk on the phone alot. We call each other and talk about some 80s song that we heard on the radio or just random stuff like that. Good time, good times!

None of my sisters are bloggers-yet. I am working on my other sister Julie. She is a blogger stalker. I think during Christmas break I will set her up. What, like its hard??? I am not sure if Laura will read this or not, but I hope you had a great day! Love ya!

You know your old when your kids dont want to enjoy your favorite Christmas show with you. Santa Claus is Coming to Town was on tonight and I had a wonderful flashback to my childhood. I use to love all of those old cartoon Christmas shows. (Yes they had TVs WAAAAYYY back then!)
I yelled for them to come in and watch with me and I got dissed by some dumb Toontown computer game they are addicted to. Oh well.

Today was kind of a crazy day. Hayden had speech and then we headed to Target. That always perks me up. Rachel, no long lines here, fast and speedy checkout--Priceless. I then went to pick up the kids, take Bowen to the eye DR, Dallin to Golf lessons, and home to make a fabulous double batch of Stroganoff Hamburger Helper. I know, I know, you are all jealous of my culinary talents. I did add a veggie and some yummy bread to spruce it up a bit. Chris, Dallin and Bowen headed to YM and scouts and I had the younger 4. I folded a mountain of clothes, yelled and threatened quit a bit, got them to bed, did dishes and here I am.

Tomorrow-who knows what that will bring. Not much as of right now. I am starting to panic at all of the things that I have on my list to do. I need to get teachers gifts put together, neighbor gifts made and it goes on and on........

Well I am off to clean up a bit. I dont know why I bother since the second they all get up in the morning it looks like a battle zone. Have a great night!!

It is actually tomorrow, the 3rd, but whose counting.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAWSON!!!!!!!!!!
Today is Lawsons Birthday. I cant believe how fast this year has flown by. Lawson is such a great baby. He is so happy nad content and just goes with the flow. I guess when you are are the "caboose" of 6 boys you have to be. Chris always calls him the caboose. I have not come to terms with the word "caboose" just yet. It makes me sad. Here are just a few pictures of him.

I still have not been able to figure out how to label each picture. How hard is it?? I dont know why I cant get it right. Anyway, the first picture is of me about a week before having him. Dont I look SOOO thrilled??? I think the rest speak for themselves, the token hospital picture, the "coming home picture and of course just him looking cute.

Not sure what is going on for his b-day. I am not one to go all out for a 1 year olds party. Like he is going to remember anything.
Hope everyone enjoyed thier weekend!!!!!!!!

MY OBSERVATIONS................................

Tonight I thought I would be more observant of the ongoings around my house rather then try to occasionally "tune them out".

1. That my tv is dusty again after I dusted it yesterday UUGGHHHH!

2. That my sweet baby has had a nice 3 hour nap. (looks like I will have a late night companion tonight).

3. That 2 of my boys that usually dont get along are playing a nice game together of cops and robbers. Good times!

4. My sweet hubby trying to fix my slow computer. Little does he know it only enhances my online spending abilities and blogging. Oh yah!!

5. That I am craving cookies and my chief cookie maker is doing temple baptisms tonight.

6. That my hair looks dang good after getting it cut tonight and knowing that it will NEVER look this good again! Why is that?????

7. That one of my fat rolls on my stomach seems to have given birth to another fat roll. Hate that!

8. That I am actually looking forward to going to Vegas after Christmas even though it is a freakin 8-10 hour drive (depending on how many Diet Cokes I drink) and even with a car load of kiddies.

9. That I really need to paint my walls in this room, after Hurricane Hayden had his way with a Sharpie. How about a Paint Party????

10. That I have a floor full of clothes to fold and put away. A never ending battle.

Well I really could go on and on, but the list of things that I am making is just reminding me of all of the things that I should be doing instead of making this list.

Today was a great day. Went to lunch to with Christine and my visiting teachers. Cobb salad and Diet Coke. So good! Picked up kids, blah blah blah. Got my hair cut and came home to dinner altready made by my sweet husbamd. Good day. Well I am off to get kids to bed and start all of my nightly chores. (Nope, not that Christina). Have a great night.

DUH!! Here is the pictures I was talking about from the previous post. I am not sure what happened to them .

One of the days this past week that we had off we headed to Fremont, where we use to live to visit the Bracketts. We have know them since we first moved to California 11 years ago!! Yikes! Time has flown by. Holly and Rachel were one of the first people that we met when we moved out here. Our kids are around the same age (except I had to one up her and go for kid number 6). Devin and Dallin are the same age. They were just 3 years old in this picture on the right. So dang cute. I think it was our first Halloween out here. Picture number 2 is the one I took of them last week. My have they grown. My sweet baby is 14!!! I am WAY to young to have one of those! LOL We had fun visiting and yes there is a picture of us "old ladies" together on the couch. That took alot of cajones for me to put that picture on. Yuk! There were 15 kids running around the house like animals. Good times, good times. Well I just wanted to add these as part of my journaling.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and ate a ton of food. I know I did. I will blog some Tday pictures later. I am excited to read about everyones adventures.

***ALERT*****

I want to alert the presses that I am officially having a brief moment of quiet!! Oh wait, it is over!! That was fast. One second it is pure bliss in this house and the next all hell breaks loose.

After having most of the kids home from school a big chunk of the week last week, today is the first day of having them ALL home. CRAZYness.

I get so stressed out when they nit pick with each other. It is so hard for me to hear that. I love it when they are all playing a nice game together or playing ball together. Good times. For the most part they all get along, but I have a few "choice" personalities that clash with one another.

I did manage to get them to straighten the garage and fold clothes. I even had Dallin do the dishes, so I cant complain too much. Trust me, they complained enough while they were helping me for all of us. UUUGG!

I also am feeling a little blue today. My face looks like a pizza and since Halloween, I think I have gained a few pounds and that is always a bummer. I am still in my pjs today. I know, I am sorry for having this pitty party. It is suppose to be a glorious Thanksgiving week and it is starting off crusty.

On to more exciting things.... I have loved reading about what everyone is thankful for. It is so great to read your blogs, I get so uplifted from them. While I am having my one person pitty party, I turned to some of your blogs and was so inspired to ponder all of my blessings. I have SO many. Well I am off to referee yet another argument.......... Lucky me. LOL

TURKEY DAY

So I just sitting here all by my lonely. Chris is in the other room watching "The Big Break Mesquite", a reality show about golf. Can you believe that? Somebody made a reality contest show about Golf. UUUGGG! I am just pondering Thanksgiving that is just around the corner. I am thinking about all of the wonderful blessings in my life and all of the things that I am so thankful for. I am being really sappy right now, I know. It must be the hormones. Heehee! We women can blame alot on those dang hormones cant we?

I am thankful for such a great family and friends. I have a great life and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for all of the wonderful blessings in my life. Ok I will snap out of it......

I think we are going to be invading the cranes for Thanksgiving. We usually do, but the last 2 years Chris' parents and sister Dana and her family have come to our house. This year they are going to head to SLC instead. They want to go and ride the Polar Express.... No offence to you great Utah girls but I would like to think that we are a little more exciting then riding a train. Oh well. We will miss them this year. I love hanging out with them. We get along so well.

I was also thinking of all the good grub that is coming my way next week. I think that my favorite part of the T day dinner is the sweet potatoes. So good. I grew up not digging them at all and then BAM! one year I fell in love. Our family tradition for cooking them is boiling them and then cooking them in butter, brown sugar and topping it off with marshmallows. Delish! I am sure I will be heading to next seasons Biggest Loser if I dont stop eating and fantasizing about food. Tonight I made Tofee Bars. Why???? I dont know. As if our house wasnt full of crap right and left as it is. Well I think that dumb show is over now. It is time to go watch the new episode of Project Runway. Now THAT is quality programming. LOL Have a great night.

Random post for sure, but really, would you expect anything different from me??

*****Ok I would love to know of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions or stories. I love getting to know more about you fabulous ladies!*******

SHOOT ME NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously please! It is the beginning of a LOOONNNGGGGG 2 weeks. Yesterday of course my kids all had the day off for Veterans Day. No hubby help, just me and my 6 shadows. I had to be my usual drill sargent self and have them do some chores. They were saying "its a holiday, why do we have to do chores"?? Uh, hello, if momma doesnt get a holiday then you dont either. They were for the most part pretty quick in getting them done so I took them to get a Slurpee. It is amazing what motivation a frozen, nasty, sugar water treat is. GROSS. Chris was home a decent time so we all survived the day with minimal damage. Our elementery schools here all have minimum days for the rest of the week. UUUUGGGG! Why????? Then they of course have all next week off also. I sure hope I can survive. I guess if I survived the summer, I can survive a few days right? I will just keep telling myself that......Last night for FHE we whipped out the Singstar 80s. It is so fun. I always end up hogging the mike. I should share the fun with the kids more. Chris and I had some friendly competition going on and I of course KICKED BUTT!!! Bowen said "mom, you know all of these songs" I loved loved loved 80s music.!!! it was so cute, while Chris and I were singing, the other boys got out the Uno deck and just started playing together on their own. Usually I have to be the one to get them going, but they all played together and had a great night.

This weekend was fun. Friday night, we just hung out. Christine and her crew stopped by and hung out with us for awhile.

Saturday we had our last Football game--PARTY ON!!! No more games, or being Chauffer Joe to a million practices anymore. We had a BBQ with the team and then Chris and I met Holly and Mike at Simply Fondue for our annual Bday dinner. It was fun. It was a new fondue place that opened up in Livermore and it was ok. We usually go to a place called La Fondue in Los Gatos, SO GRUB! but it is kind of far. We had fun anyway.

Sunday was the Primary program. The kids all did a great job. So cute. I love to watch them all up there singing and my kids did a great job on their speaking parts. I was so proud of them. The rest of Sunday we just hung out and chilled. A much needed break.

Well I am off to get my dinner done. I am having Swedish Meatballs . It doesnt sound so appealing right now because I made a serious pig of myself at Costco today. They had so many good food samples. I should just Duct tape my mouth closed sometimes. Have a great night.



PS Has anyone tied those new Strawberry Mini Wheats?? So tasty. I am addicted. I think it is better for me to pig out on these, then 20 or so Halloween candy bars right??

For some reason this one didnt download with the others. This is some cute bags and yummy chocolates from christine and Maressa..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

I had a great birthday. It started out great and only got better. I already posted about my sweet kids in the morning and finding the Sees Truffles from my hubby, well it only got better from there. As the morning progressed I found sweet gifts with clever little notes from Chris. My Sees candy note said "for the sweetest person in my life" then went in the bathroom to get my face on there was a box. It was a cute necklace box that said "thanks for hanging around me" . Then when I got in the car that morning there was a pair of shoes that he had picked out (he actually did a great job picking them out) with a note that said "my life has been better since you walked into my life" Isnt he cute? He also sent me roses that came with MORE candy and a bear. So fun I must say.

Bowen made my birthday cake. Last week he made chocolate cake in Home Ec and wanted to make it for me again for my Bday. It turned out pretty dang tasty. My friends Christine and Maressa came over later that night and we ate dinner and cake and let all of the kids run crazy.
Chris had YM, so the girls just hung out and visited. Good times. Any way I had a great day, the kids were even on their best behavior. Why cant it be my bday every day????

Here is some pictures of all of my "booty"........ As you can see I scored. One of the middle pictures is of the fun package I got in the mail from Melinda She is so sweet and I LOVE LOVE LOVE everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU MELINDA for thinking of me.

Well today is Friday and you know what that means. Its tabloid trash day!!! Yeah!! I am so excited. Some of the kids are practicing their Primary Program and having pizza afterwards. It is only an hour (Too bad it isnt longer) LOL Hope everyone has a great weekend. Once again after rereading this it seems like a jumbled mess. Oh well , I guess that is why I dont get paid the big bucks to be a writer. Hee hee.

PS Is anyone else out there starting to get all freaked out about Christmas Shopping??? I am. I am totally dreading it!!! I am sure most of you are all done or almost all done. I am
going to do the bulk of it online. I better get off my butt and get it done!!!

A rare occasion here..........

I know this is rare, but I need to blog here about how wonderful my kids are. First of all they ARE great kids, I think I need to recognize them for that more often then I do.............

If you noticed a dark and dreary cloud formation over Northern California today it is because it is my dang Birthday today. It simply means that I am another year OLDer. Anyway I woke up this mornig to start my normal routine of getting the kids up, dressed, fed, lunches made, checking blogs real quick and getting thier sweet booties out the door, when I was assaulted by good deeds all over the place! My boys had made me a sweet card, made their own lunches were dressed and even had my Slim Fast shake on the counter for me. Are they the cutest or what? I was even saying to myself when I came down the stairs "crap, I have to make lunches today, maybe they should all just buy lunch" They must have read my mind. I even sat down to the computer to a box os Sees candy (my favorites) with a sweet card from my man. Cna this day get any better??? Um maybe if I could make myself 30 again it could. hee hee

I will post pictures later of my Happy Bday Good Mail" from Melinda and sweet cards I have gotten. Have a great day!!

***Halloween pics***


First of all I wanted to clear up the "leg picking" issue. I realize that I have managed to gross out a ton of you about my love for picing my leg hairs. First of all I DO shave my legs on a regular basis!!! It is not like I am picking at some hairy, nasty pump stump of a leg. I just love picking at the stubble that is growing in. Good times!! To answer the question of which method I use, I use my nails or a tweezers. Ok, on the better things......

Here are some of out Halloween pictures. I cant seem to just post a bunch of pictures the way I want to. It only allows me to put on a couple at a time so the collage is the next best thing.

We had a fun but hectic Halloween. We headed to Chris' work for thier Halloween Trick or Treat. It is pretty funny. All of the kids dress up and trick or treat he cubicles and offices, Too funny, but the kids love it and they get a TON of candy. After the honkin commute home (way over an hour!!!) we gobbled some dinner and the kids went around the hood to get some more candy. Like they needed any more!.. I am having a hard time keeping my grubby paws off of all of their lute. Why cant people hand out crappy candy instead of the good stuff??

This weekend is kind of low key. Chris had a campout and took Dallin and Bowen with him. No hot date night for me, unless you count the other boys left home with me hot dates. I think so. It is actulaly enjoyable spending time with the younger ones. I dragged them to Target (I was having withdrawels) and then we got some Wendys and then came home. We popped popcorn and watched a movie. I had them all to bed my 10 and had several hours of ME TIME. Caught up on some Tivod shows and read my mags. What more could you want on a Friday night???

Today after the guys got home we had Bowens Football game and just chilled out. We made pizza and the kids all played outside. Well I have a clean little man begging at my legs ( No not Chris) We are getting the kids bathed and ready for 9:30 church in the morning. YUK!!! At least we gain an hour right???? Hope you all enjoy the rest of the weekend and enjoy your extra hour sleep. You know I will!!!