**************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!!