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!

Poor toes

You all really pulled through on the comments, and for that I thank you. I feel a special closeness with you, my blogging friends, so I feel like I can share with you a little bit of a sad story.
As you know from my last triumphant post, I have had a really sore hip. Almost a week later, I am still struggling with it, but it is on the mend. I can now walk up the stairs with alternating steps instead of the crawl I used at the beginning of the week. It has been really painful, but still worth it, in my opinion.
Now for the sad part. Ben was in Kansas City this week, so someone still had to take care of the kids. I was making dinner one night and thought I would save myself a few excruciating steps and just separate the packages of chicken where I was standing at the freezer. I dropped one of the pounds of frozen chicken, and because I couldn't move my leg out of the way fast enough, the package dropped right on my poor little pinky toe. I didn't cry through the whole hip ordeal, but I did cry about the toe.
It does feel a little better with a fresh pedicure and coat of nail polish.

Accountability Update aka YAY ME!!!

I think it was back in August that I told you all that I was going to run a 1/2 marathon in hopes of motivating myself to get into shape. Well, this was the weekend, and guess what....I DID IT!!!! I am so proud of me! We met up with Ben's sisters, aunt, cousins and grandma in St. George, Utah for the race. We had so much fun! I love my in-laws, they are all THEE BEST!
So, here is the rundown of what I have been doing.
I joined the gym. Best thing ever. I love going to the group classes. I know me and this is what motivates me. Here's my schedule:
Mondays and Fridays: 5:30 power up (kind of a cardio/fat burning weights class)
Tuesdays, Wednesdays (@ 8:30) and Thursdays: 5:30 spinning--my gosh--after your bum gets used to the seat wedged into it, this class is so much fun! Thursdays I also go back at 9:15 for Butts and Guts. Soon we will have another core class to fill in on Wednesday mornings.
I also try to get back and do more cardio on the elliptical or go out running 4-5 miles. I like the elliptical because it doesn't kill my knees.
I also said in my previous post that I wasn't going to weigh or measure myself, and for the most part I haven't. I didn't want to discourage myself. I am nursing Jeff still and my body still wants to hold onto fat, but I finally did weigh myself and I have lost about 10 pounds! Even better than that, though, is that instead of buying XL pants and shirts, I am feeling very comfortable in a Medium!
I don't usually make a habit of taking before and after shots so I don't have much for concrete evidence. I was looking through pictures and found this one. Now don't barf......

My tummy (among other things) is so gooshy!
Here I am at the end of the race with my SILs and CIL (that is cousin in law). Thank you (marathon running) Kristi for hanging back with me! You saved the day. It was my goal not to walk at all. I did let myself have a little rest at the water stops, just enough to drink my water without sloshing it all over myself, but at mile 6 my hip started to really bother me. I tried to stretch it out, but at mile 10 I couldn't handle the pain anymore. I had to walk. DANG IT! I was able to pull it together and run most of the last mile, but I was absolutely dying! I have had a really hard time walking the last couple of days, but it was worth it to be able to finish a goal I had set for myself. I am pleased, however, that the rest of me is doing great! For the most part, besides my hip, I don't have any other sore muscles, and my heart rate and recovery were in tip-top shape! I feel really good about the lifestyle changes I have made and am going to keep everything up. I set out with this race as motivation, but now have other goals for myself.

Last but not least, I LOVE THIS GUY! He has been so supportive and kind. I am really looking forward to him running it with me next year!

OK, that's about it. It sure is a narcissistic post, but guess what, this is my blog. Now, I am expecting a lot of comments containing phrases such as "Oh my gosh! You look so good!" and "Way to go, Emily! You are truly amazing!" and maybe even "Six Kids Later is HOT!" Any of those will do, or any other for that matter!

Why?

It was clean yesterday. This is what I find today. Why do I even bother? Today the story is that they were making tattoos. What this has to do with toilet paper shredded all over the floor is beyond me. I think, to their credit, that they may have been trying to clean up the make-up smeared all over the counter, that may have something to do with the empty Clorox wipe containers smashed on the floor. I hate to admit that tooth brushing is already a privilege that must be earned daily and supervised by a competent adult (this is because I was tired of tubes of toothpaste being squeezed out almost daily and spread out on counters, door knobs and pillows--you know, funny pranks like that). I am considering making usage of the bathroom for whatever reason a privilege also. Why are my kids so destructive? What have I done wrong? ARRRR!!!!!

Movie Review

Ben and I went to see Valkyrie last night. I LOVED IT! It definitely was not a make you feel good movie, but I went in there knowing what was going to happen and it was still exciting. We had seen a documentary on the real Valkyrie plan on the History Channel a few days ago and it really gave me an appreciation for what these brave men and women knew they had to do. It was touching to see the children of those involved speak so proudly of what their fathers had done for Germany and all of the world. I have seen reviews of this movie and have been reminded of how ridiculous Hollywood is. Many reviews were based on Tom Cruise, not the movie. I liked them both. The only bad thing about the movie was that right in front of us, a family had brought their LITTLE kids. They were banging their heads on the back of the seat and into my leg for awhile (until I told them to knock it off), and giggling the whole way through the movie, until the end ***SPOILER ALERT*** when they quieted down and sat still through all the suicides and executions. That is what I call responsible parenting. Idiots!
We also went and took the kids to see Marley and Me when we went to Tahoe last week. We were really looking forward to seeing it so we braved the casino and the singing Elvis we had to walk through to get to the theater. I think it had a lot of potential, but our kids started asking too many questions like "Why did she say there is a naked lady in their bed?", and "What is a _______?" so I guess I will have to wait for the DVD to find out on my own how that one ended. Oh well. Have you seen any movies lately?

Hair Troubles

My hair has a hard time behaving. It all started when I was about 12 years old and in one day went from having stick straight hair to coarse, frizzy hair. A lot of people gave me advice on how to better manage my hair; "try hot rollers" (not so good in the 8th grade, a little better now), "if you would just put gel in your hair it would look like mine and then maybe you could have a boyfriend, too" (I'm not kidding--someone really said this).
I finally learned some tricks to manage my unruly locks and make the natural curl look somewhat presentable, when wouldn't you know it, I have a baby and went from unruly curly hair to straight-in-some-sections-and-curly-in-others. I have to say that this has been a little easier to manage, but more hair troubles ensued.
We moved to Nevada, and as I have mentioned in previous posts, I did not love it. I blame Nevada almost completely for the grey hairs that popped out when I was merely 25. To cover up these grey hairs, my sister-in-laws and I decided to try a box of hair color with "just a little red" (requested by Ben). That little bit of red turned my hair completely BURGUNDY. It took 7 treatments within a month to get it back to semi-normal. Needless to say, my hair was fried. In our new ward I met a lady who told me that she would love to do my hair. I looked at her own frizzy mullet, and since I am a firm believer that your hair will in some way resemble your hairdresser's, Bambii did not get the job.
I have kind of trucked along over the years and have discovered some real tricks that help. I can't live without: a) good shampoo and conditioner, b) my S-Factor smoothing lusterizer, and c) my round brush and blowdryer. I have also learned that it is good to give my hair off days, but my exercise schedule and the sweat that comes with it, make this part of my regimine a little tricky.
One of the only pleasures that comes with my hair is that it LOVES to be played with. I am putty in the hands of whoever runs their fingers through my hair. I will let my kids stay up as late as they want as long as they are playing with my hair. So, on Christmas night, we were watching Wall-E and I was in my hair-being-played-with catatonic state, when all of a sudden something was terribly wrong. My usually tough scalp was being pulled at in a very strange and uncomfortable way. There were strange clicking sounds..."What are you doing to me, Maya?!?" I reach up and grab the cuticle scissors that came in my manicure set from Santa out of her little hand.

Will there ever be peace in my hair's life?

Quick Updates and Birthday Adventures

I AM A BLOG SLACKER. I don't know if you noticed, but it has been about a month since my last late post. I don't know what to say, other than things are busy here...nothing earth shattering, just life in general.

Here's the skinny--

*Thanksgiving was fabulous, Utah was beautiful. I LOVE my inlaws. They are all so much fun to be around.

* I ran my 6K, I use ran loosely. I finished and did pretty well for my age group, which was 98 for some reason.

Um, that about does it for updates worth writing about. So, onto more current things.

Jessica Turned 12!

Time has really flown by. It seems like just yesterday we brought this beautiful little lady home from the hospital. I thought that growing up in a large family would prepare me for life as a mother, but I learned REALLY fast that I had no idea what I was doing. Here was this beautiful baby, with a perfect little round head and big gorgeous eyes, depending on me for everything she needed. She has been such a joy in our lives since she was born. She is beautiful and talented. She is sensitive and kind. She is my right hand gal. I LOVE HER TO PIECES!!! She wanted to go to San Fransisco for her birthday so off we went! We had a great time together as a family and then enjoyed some present opening over breakfast and delicious Penne Rigate for dinner. She got some great gifts, including the first Twilight book which she finished within 2 days. But....the most exciting news is that she got her ears pierced!!!!! She has been looking forward to this day her whole life (believe me). She had to call a few people and interview them about their ear piercing experience so that she could make an educated decision and use her agency wisely. She is so big, and I am so old. Happy Birthday, Jessica!

Ben turns 35 (that's halfway to 70, you know)!

It's true. He is even getting the grey hairs to prove it. He is such a good daddy, he wanted to spend the day with his family so we went to Jamestown and rode the steam engine. It was lots of fun for everyone. Santa, a very talented fiddler, and a band of raucous casino patrons were also on the train. We have missed cold weather and snow so we drove a little farther and were able to play in the snow...for a few minutes before we got too cold and decided that being warm is also very nice. Then it was off to the Bass Pro Shop for a little manly shopping. Happy Birthday, Ben!