Happy Mother's Day!

I look at this picture and smile. Can you believe all these kids came out of me!!! I really am amazing! I am so happy to be a mother and wife! My Heavenly Father has blessed me with 6 beautiful children and 1 fabulous husband. I am grateful they are mine. I love the handmade and hand-me-down gifts and the special balloon and flowers! I hope your Mother's Day was as relaxing and rewarding as mine, and as a special gift to you, I actually did 2 posts today!!!

I'm Not So Good With Lyrics

This morning in Spin Class, a certain song came on. I started to laugh a little to myself because this is one of those songs whose lyrics have confused me for a long time now. It wasn't until I was singing it on Guitar Hero a few weeks ago that I realized what the real words were, and that they were nothing like what I have been singing for years. If this were an isolated incident, I wouldn't think too much of it, but lyrics are not my thing. I am not blessed with the ability to hear a song once or twice and be able to sing along. I have to go to elyrics, one of my favorite sites, and read along as I hear the song, then I do a little better from there on out. There have been a few times, however, that after reading the lyrics, I have had to stop listening to the song all together. For instance, there is a great song by Maroon 5 called "Makes Me Wonder" that I absolutely love(d). After listening to it so often I actually could sing along I thought I would go check it out and see if I was missing something. Well, I was. Turns out the F-bomb is dropped a few times and I didn't even notice, I just sang right along, not even realizing what I was singing. Oops. Delete.
I thought I would humor you with a few of my favorite lyrical blunders. Ben loves them and more often than I like, looks over at me with a huge smile on his face and says "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!?!"
Here goes.
This morning's song:

Emily Lyrics:
Hey little thing let me light your candle cause I'm sure the handyman, gets around.

Actual Lyrics:
Hey little thing let me light your candle cause I'm sure hard to handle, now, yes I am. (Black Crowes-Hard to Handle, the name should have been a clue for me, but those are also tricky for me.)

Emily Lyrics:
(Inaudible humming with an occasional syllable or two), then something about a carpet knife.

Actual Lyrics:
You're one of those guys who likes to shine his machine
You make me take off my shoes before you let me get in
I can't believe you kiss your car goodnight.
(Shania Twain- That Don't Impress Me Much)

And last but not least, my favorite. This song, THIS VERSE actually, has two blunders so silly, we still sing them like this, just because!

Emily Lyrics:
Well I hear you went up to Saratoga, and your horse naturally won. (Not bad so far)
Then you flew your pigeon up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun. (Really? A Pigeon?!)
(More inaudible humming/singing along) and when you're not you're with some (humming) or the wife of the postman, wife of the postman....

Actual Lyrics:
Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga, and your horse naturally won.
Then you flew your LEARJET (learjet...pigeon...close, right?) up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun.
Well, you're where you should be all the time,
and when you're not, you're with some underworld spy
or the wife of a close friend, wife of a close friend.....
(Carly Simon, You're So Vain)


There are so many more, I hope I haven't ruined any of your favorites for you! Do you have any of your own?

p.s. Do you know who is singing back-up for Carly? I do know that!

How's This For Random?

The gym I go to shares space at a strip mall with stores such as "Body By Design", a health food store, "Picturesque", photography services, and "F.Y.E.", movies and game store. There are also a few restaurants like Mariachis, which has great Mexican food, Little Caesars, which has great cheap pizza, and Sunshine Donuts, which apparently has great donuts. I say this because when I leave the gym at 6:30 every morning, there is quite a crew of old men in there enjoying their morning coffee and donuts, along with what I am sure is very stimulating conversation. So here is the random part. Yesterday as I was leaving the gym, one of the old men came out of the donut shop carrying his donut pillow. It's probably pretty juvenile of me, but I got a little chuckle out of it and wished I had thought to bring my camera.

I just don't know what to say. I read blogs and really enjoy them, everyone has such interesting and witty things to say! My life, while rich and full, is pretty much the same day in and day out.


Get up, gym, kids up and ready for school, off to school, chores, pick up kid, lunch, chores, don't sit down in the afternoon or I will fall asleep, kids home from school, "can I call so-and-so to play," "is your homework done?", "Do your homework." "What's for dinner?" "I don't know." dinner, karate/young women's/ Relief Society etc., pajamas, family prayer, kids to bed, chores, bed.

I spice things up with things like friends, preschool, volunteering at school, extra classes at the gym, choir, a little shopping every now and again, facebook... you know...fun stuff.


I love my life and am happy that it is mine, but I worry that people really won't want to read about the everyday things. Then I think of my husband who is often gone and really would like to see what we do everyday, I think of my mother-in-law who loves reading about her grandkids and seeing them grow up, even if it is just in pictures, and then I feel bad that I am not finding and sharing the joy that I could be in the small everyday things like a) happy, healthy, hilarious (although sometimes a little bit naughty) kids, b) a routine c) a truly blessed life.


So I apologize for my slacking. I will be better, even if it is just for me. I can use this blog to my advantage if I want to.

Among other things, I can:

* Journal funny things. A friend of mine told me once that if you will be able to laugh about it later, you might as well now. I need to be better about that.

* I can pat myself on the back for my own little successes and triumphs.

* I can vent to an understanding group of fellow mothers of young children, and reap wisdom from mothers who have more experience than I do.

* express my thoughts and random musings on things. I do think about things, I am just not very good at expressing them (obviously...). It just comes out boring. I think I need to read more. I see other people do it on their blogs and I am usually highly entertained by those posts, so maybe it won't be so bad.


So here you go. I am turning over a new leaf. I will be posting a lot more regularly, even the mundane. You may see pictures of my laundry and dirty dishes. You will definitely see my kids without their hair brushed, probably dirty, etc. But that is us.


If you have read this far, I applaud you. And now, without further ado, I present our life the last two months.....


Ok...I am just going to start uploading pictures. I don't know if they will be in forward or reverse order, so we'll see!

The kids were off track the whole month of February. Last year, the weather was absolutely beautiful the whole month. We go to enjoy it from the couch, as I had just had a baby. This year, it rained the entire month. I am grateful for the rain, we live in a big agricultural area, and it is a blessing, but it did get really old.

Jessica and her friend Jessica out playing in the rain.


Ben got a new toy. He told me we were going to Costco to pick up his contacts. The truck seemed to magically make its way to all the motorcycle shops in Modesto, finally deciding that the Yamaha Dealership was the place to be. Happy Valentines Day, Ben! This is a happy guy! He works hard all week and really looks forward to some manly time.


On Presidents Day, Ben went out for his first ride. He hit a sweet jump wrong and had a little bit of a crash. His ankle is still swollen. He didn't seem to mind too much, and has gotten back on the bike, so it must not have phased him too badly.


Anna turned 8!!! We had a little party with a few or her friends and went to go see the Jonas Brothers' tour movie.

We followed the movie with pizza, cake and ice cream. She is such a beautiful girl! I am more and more impressed with her everyday! She loves to learn and can be the sweetest thing ever!! I can't seem to find her baptism pictures right now, so I will post them a little later. We had a great time and are so glad to have this little angel in our family!

After quite a dry spell in the visitor department, we had our first set of guests in March! Josie and Blake brought their kids to visit on their way to Disneyland. We had a wonderful time with them and took them to one of our favorite places, Monterey. We went to the aquarium and spent about 10 freezing cold minutes on the beach...plenty of time for all the kids to play in the water and get drenched! They are crazy! The kids had a great time with their cousins and I was happy as can be to have them all here!


The next set of guests came about a week later, and I had no idea they were coming at all!!! My sweet sisters knew how much I miss my family, and surprised me with a visit!!! I am going to just send you on over to Libbie's post on the surprise, I loved it so much and am looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeves next!!! I love you guys!

http://localib.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Next on the list of activities was my birthday! Yay for me!! I am 33! My sweet friends surprised me with a beautifully decorated bike at spinning! I usually am one of the first people there, but that day I accidentally overslept until 5:14 and was a little late. It was so pretty, complete with a flag, streamers, and a pretty little basket filled with some of my favorite things!

Sorry about the sideways video, I don't know how to fix that. Lucky for me, my kids messed up the resolution on the monitor, so while every other picture makes me look especially wide and squatty, this video makes me look so long and lean. So humor me and mess yours up too!

My friends Deanna and Sally also had birthdays within a few days of mine, so we gathered up a group of all the coolest ladies and headed out for a night on the town. Dinner consisted of a whole smorgasbord of appetizers. We thought it was such a fun idea, til we were all so sickened by all the fattiness, we had all wished we had ordered a salad. The company was great!

I went ahead and told my kids it was my birthday, even if it meant that I might possibly have to make myself a cake, but I didn't have to! Good friends brought me some delicious cheesecake to share with the kids! They know I am not such a fan of cake, especially when I have to make it myself! I am really glad I have such wonderful friends who know how to treat a girl right on her birthday because my husband forgot all about it. Dang guy. He's lucky I love him. He was feeling really bad about it and is going to be treating me soon to a weekend in SF where we will stay in a nice hotel...no kids!!!!!.... and hopefully see Wicked. I am really looking forward to it!

Last but not least, we had a beautiful and quiet little Easter at home. Ben and I made Leg of Lamb, roasted new potatoes, grilled asparagus with Hollandaise (homemade...thank you Martha Stewart!), Fresh Lemonade, and Chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. It was delicious!!! We enjoyed eating outside in the yard that we have been working so hard in and are really starting to love!!!

The kids are all getting so big! I love this picture, and with a little photoshop, I think we can get them all looking at the camera!!! Aren't they such cuties? I love them all so much!

Thanks for being patient with me. Hope it wasn't to long and boring! Now, the time is 1:23am, and I am bushed. I have to wake up in about 3.5 hours so this is going to have to do!

Ohhh, its gonna be a big one!!!

Well, lookey, lookey! Its little ol' me with a bit of a teaser! I haven't posted in an absurd amount of time, I am feeling a little guilty. I have had A LOT to blog about, but more pressing issues like exercising and Twilight have won over. Oh, and I am wondering if anyone even reads this anymore becuase I have been such a slacker. SOOO, I'll tell you what. If I get 5 comments telling me things like "oh, I have missed you and your posts" on here before 8 o'clock tonight, I will put Edward and the DVRd Housewives of NYC off for a while and spend the evening catching up with you all. If I don't get 5, sorry, it'll just have to wait!

Comfort and Compassion Kid Style

We were at Costco AGAIN yesterday. I practically live there, and why shouldn't I? That place has it all. I was going through the aisles with 5 of the kids, telling them MANY O' TIME not to walk right in front of the cart "I can't see you", "I might not be paying close enough attention to you to stop in time...I am on a mission", "You're going to get smashed" etc. I think these are all very convincing reasons to steer clear of the front of the cart, but that's me. My kids like to walk on the wild side, they laugh at danger. Today, though, I think they might have learned a little something about velocity and getting in its way.
Here's the scene: We were walking with our ginormous cart back out to the car. It is starting to rain a little so I am walking a little faster than I would on, say, a sunny day. The parking lot is sloping gradually towards a drain. All of these factors contributed to what happened next, but none were as much to blame as Mr. Reese and his chosen path. It wasn't a gradual veer that led him to that treacherous place, but a sudden 90 degree left turn right in front of the cart. AND....he's down, SCREAMING as only Reese can. I pull the giant pack of toilet paper off of him and help him up. "Are you okay?" But, being the mean mother that I am, that was about as far as the compassion went. " Do you see why you shouldn't walk in front of the cart?!?!" and all of the reasons mentioned above were restated, along with the whole speed+intersecting vectors= no good quickie physics lesson. We got everyone and everything into the car and headed home, Reese still crying in the backseat.
Sometimes people give me a hard time for having so many kids. I loved growing up in a big family and am happy to raise my own kids in a not quite as big a family for many reasons, one of them being that there is always someone there to help you feel better. On this day, a little extra compassion was what was needed, and it came in the form of Maya.

Reese: "Whaaaaaaaaaaa!
Maya: "Weese, why don'tt you justt stop thinking aboutt yo owie, and then itt won'tt hutt anymo." (Her t's are always very crisp and enunciated.)
Reese: "WHAAAA! I can't stop thinking about it, it hurts so bad!"
Maya: "Well, why don'tt you think aboutt Gwamma wewing yo undowew and then you won'tt think aboutt yo toe anymo."

What a sweetheart.

My Baby is One!!!

Look at this handsome young man!

This was my first look at my 6th and last little baby. I have loved every minute of having him here in our family, he is such a sweet little guy!

G" border=0>Ok, I baked the cake and as it was cooling I thought I would go ahead and shower, since it was about 6 o'clock and I still had my exercise sweat on. Yuck, I know, but hey, it was a busy day! As I am showering, Anna, Reese, Maya, and Bella decided to help themselves to the frosting. I came back downstairs to half of the container in their bellies. So, being the mean mother that I am, they had to have plain cake. Guess what? No complaints. I think they maaayyyy be learning. Here's to hoping.

Jeff has recently found his nostrils. If it weren't so cute, I would be grossed out.

Jeff loved his birthday dinner of sloppy joes, tater tots, cake and ice cream!


What I Love about Jeff!
*I love how he smiles so sweetly when he wakes up.
*I love how he walks with his arms raised up above his head.
*I love how much he loves milk and vegetables.
*I love how much he LOVES Jessica.
*I love it when he pats me on the back.
*I love it when he reaches for Ben.
*I love it when he hugs Madge (the dog).
*I love it when he helps me put the clothes in the washer
and then stands there and watches it go around.
*I love how he thinks he is so funny and laughs at himself.
*I love that he loves his bubby, he is definitely my baby!
* I love how he loves to take naps in his bed.
*I love how he sings little tunes while he is waiting for his food. It is so sweet!
*I love how he tries to communicate with us with little hissing sounds.
*I love it when I hear him out playing with his brothers and sisters. He is so comfortable and secure with his family.

I could go on and on...
So I'll tell you a funny story.

Yesterday I took the kids to Costco for grocery shopping. It was crazy busy, but we managed. The kids were generally well behaved and were rewarded with plenty of free samples. As I was putting the groceries on the conveyor belt and keeping the kids in order, Jeff was playing happily in the cart. After a few minutes I noticed that he was playing in my purse and had thrown my sunglasses out onto the floor. Oh dear, I better get them. As I am picking up the sunglasses...oh no! I see the wrapper from my emergency purse tampon on the floor under my cart. Oh dear, dear, dear...under the cart of the people behind us is the plunger of the applicator...I am panicking....please no more! But yes! Out in the middle of the two lines is the top part of the applicator...I race to grab it....BUT WHERE IS THE TAMPON?!?!?! I look at my sweet little baby, sitting so contently in the cart... and there it is. HE IS SUCKING ON IT! AAAAAA!!!! I turn around to see if anyone has noticed this disgustingness....THEY HAVE!!! There's a nice middle-aged couple behind us with huge smiles/laughs on their faces. To the very nice woman I say (trying really hard to not laugh my head off) "WHY DIDN"T YOU SAY SOMETHING?!?! I THOUGHT WE WOMEN WERE SUPPOSED TO STICK TOGETHER!!!" She just laughed and her sweet husband replied, "It was way too entertaining! Look how happy he is!"

I love Jeff.
Happy Birthday!