What's On My Happy List?

I tell ya it's never dull around here.

We attended Kyleigh and Emma's YW's "New Beginnings" last night and had only been home a short while when Emma realized she didn't have her retainer. 

{Oh, no...not again}

You should have seen the angst in her face when she realized she must have thrown it accidentally away with her dessert plate. 

Did I mention it's her new retainer? of one week!

{Lord help me}

   I managed to remain calm {kudos to me}

 and sent Dad and her, in the dark of night, dumpster diving over at the church.

They retrieved the two big bags of garbage accumulated from the evening's activity and  

layed it out on newspapers in the backyard.

Then Emma began the daunting task of searching for a little clear plastic mold in a mound of muck, but not before a couple of prayers were sent heavenward.

Hannah was kind enough to go out with her to be the "support staff" while the rest of the household was desperately trying to watch the biggest basketball game in BYU history. 

They predicted the 8:15 p.m. tip off between the #9 Cougars (19-1) against the #4 San Diego State Aztecs (20-0) would easily be the most-watched, most-followed regular-season college basketball game, from a national perspective, in state history.
                                    
                Mostly because of this guy....Jimmer Fredette.

                                                                            
He's basically A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!  I believe I'd rename my son Jimmer. {if I had a son}
No less than 24 NBA scouts were in attendance along with scribes from Sports Illustrated and ESPN.com as well as a sell out crowd of almost 23, 000 to see Jimmer score 43 points in a wild win for BYU. That wasn't the only reason I was doing the happy dance. 

 Emma found her retainer! Halla-freak'in-lujah! Our prayers were answered. The church is true!

In other random going ons....

We are getting a new roof...and after three days of thunderous pounding, scraping and overall noise of multiple men with tools overhead... producing tarp after tarp of roof rubbish,  I'm looking forward to a little piece and quiet.

And my car parked back in the garage.

And could I pretty please ask for no more play dates with #2 problems.
Just as I was needing to get out the door for a hair appointment this afternoon Brie's little girlfriend finds herself in the bathroom, in tears, with poop issues..in her pants, so she said.
Are you kidding me?  {what timing}
AND she tells me she isn't wearing any underwear for the day. Say WHAT?
                                                             She says they bug her.
                                                              Which I get. sort of.
Underwear at this establishment is mandatory unless you are bathing or in dance costume... 
So needless to say, I was a little taken back.
As calmly and kindly a manner as I could muster I quickly remedied the situation.
But seriously, I think I deal with enough poo and pee issues in this house without having to deal with one more!

What's On My Happy List?

Love this curly hair baby of mine...

This smiley face girl of mine...

on a school outing at the bowling alley

            I'm wonder'in if they even bowled or just took pics the whole time?!?!?!...

That dreaded brown line. Are you even allowed past that thing? I swear the first thing I think of when I see it is visions of accidently going past it, slipping and falling to my behiney. Probably a "try to forget moment" from my teenage years. 

{bet you didn't know that I secretly hate bowling. Not the sport necessarily. It's the shoe sharing that I can't get past.}  

And I love the dancing legs on this 4th girl of mine....

B. Olivia is taking an Irish "little shamrock" dance class for 5-7 yr olds in preparation for the St. Patrick's Day Parade downtown.   You should see her break out in her Irish dance skip around the house. Kills me.

There are 14 in her class...with three boys even. Way too cute!

And lastly, I'm lov'in the hottest color for 2011!

Did you know that Pantone, the world's leading authority on color, decides what the color of the year is going to be? Who knew? Its a shade of pink called Honeysuckle and you'll see it in everything from fashion, make-up to home decor in the months ahead. I'm a pink girl all the way!

pic courtesy of Pantone

So for all you fashion conscious ladies out there....I'm happy to say....THINK PINK!

What's On My Happy List?

Sunday, January 23, 2010

Grandpa C.

We've been on a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride this weekend. Grandpa C. is very sick. He has been in the hospital all week {mostly in the ICU} since the episode here at the house last Sunday. After tests were run it was confirmed that he did indeed have another heart attack. {massive one} That would be two of those within a year. They would have performed his 5 bypass  surgery last Monday, but because he has been on blood thinner medication since his heart attack last April, they needed to have his system cleared of that first. So they waited until Friday. Post surgery it seemed that things had gone well, but shortly after some complications occurred.  Daddy set up a blog for family and friends to follow his status {found HERE}  We took a pic of the grand kids this afternoon to hang by his hospital bed so when he wakes up from his sedated state he has something happy to look at. 

 Around 8:00 tonight...look what he was able to do...two thumbs up!  This is progress folks. He is hooked up to about every tube and machine possible. Tubes in his nose, neck, throat, arms...it's a pretty intense scene.

 The picture below shows the many pumps they used to help push the different medications into him.  At one point all of them were going at the same time. Crazy stuff.

We are hopeful that he will only continue to improve and not have any more set backs. WE LOVE YOU GRANDPA!

What's On My Happy List?

Quote of the day, no week...
Two of my younger girls, after they have taken their nightly bath, have a tendency to leave their day clothes on the bathroom floor...in the same spot, like ALL THE TIME. I constantly have to remind them to take it to the dirty laundry. The other morning, I noticed the left clothing from the night before and happened to make a comment to my hubby about it as he was getting ready for work.. he blurted out...
                
"It's like a dog that poops in the same spot!"
{nothing like early morning humor to get your day started right}


AND in other Laundry news...What possessed me to take photos of the girl's sock drawers today? It put a smile on my face, that's why.  A laundry success!....Two full drawers of folded socks...one for patterned and the other for whites...any time I see this sight it makes me want to do the happy dance. {Doesn't take much to make me happy folks}

What's On My Happy List?

'Artic Chateau'
January here has been cold, snowy and icy! In the spirit of that, we thought we'd make a winter themed cake. We used two different sized bundt pans, oodles of frosting, marshmallows, and sugar cubes to make our igloo creation. It, and the snowflakes were great fun to make! Afterwards, in the theme of things, I took the kids to Artic C for ice-cream. And if you can't tell, I'm the mama penguin off to the right with baby Kate. LOL

What's On My Happy List?

Have to say this morning did not make my happy list.
It's been the oddest morning ever.

It began with Kate waking up at the unearthly 5:00 o'clock hour.

Then in the still of the morn as I was trying to get Kate to go back down, Kyleigh's closet racks completely collapsed into this mound of mayhem. The picture doesn't do the mess justice. {And of course this would happen just after we recently organized the dang thing.} More on the closet catastrophe later.

                                                            

Baby had her overnight diaper explode from the inside out. literally. Never seen that before.

Brie woke up and felt like she was going to throw up...

And then as we were getting ready for church a real emergency occurred, I myself half dressed and in the loo, {I have such great timing} grandma tells us shes called 911 for grandpa who was having severe chest pains and collapsed upstairs. Paramedics came and took him in the ambulance to the hospital. 

Hubby was in another ward speaking at the time so I couldn't reach him to tell him about his dad until he was done.{Just a little un nerving not knowing the serious of the situation.} Once he was done, left the girls with the baby at church and rushed with him to the hospital. Spent some time in the ER. My sister in law who lives close by took my mother in law to the hospital. SIL left her kids with her husband, who is recuperating from a leg injury he received at his soccer game yesterday. While she was gone her 5 month old baby, in its car seat on the kitchen table, toppled to the floor. Oh my!  

Gratefully, both baby and grandpa are alive. They ran some tests on grandpa. His high level of enzymes indicate he probably had a heart attack last night when he was also having pain {unbeknownst to us}and then possibly another heart attack this morning. That would be three within a year, as he had one last April. {not good} After a night in the hospital and more tests run tomorrow, hopefully we will know more.   

And then if that ain't enough, another minor mishap occurred when I slammed my finger in the dishwasher cleaning up after our family lunch. Ouch!

There is certainly some bad karma going on here within this family today. 

                             

I believe for the rest of the day we are locking the doors and staying inside! LOL

Now back to the closet chaos..... 

With Kyleigh's side of the closet crashing down this morn and Emma's still fully intact didn't help our case in making Dad change his opinion about Kyleigh having too many clothes. Ever since six weeks into the new school year when Kyleigh declared she hadn't worn the same outfit once, Dad has been insistent that she has too many clothes. And then to add more fuel to his fire....a few weeks ago she comes home and tells us she was nominated at school for their schools version of America's next top model by the yearbook staff.  Hilarious!

Yes, this girl loves clothes, no doubt there, but in her defense, she really doesn't have an extreme amount. I'm thinking typical teenage girl collection. That, and the fact that she just has a knack for mixing an matching to where she isn't wearing the same ensemble too often. Plus she shares with Emma too.  

Which leads perfectly into my next story.

As I made mention in my Christmas Eve post, there was a little bit of drama between these two on Christmas Eve morn. {of all days?} Made even stranger by the fact that they really don't fight like this all that often. 

I {once again with my perfect timing} was showering and missed all of the action.

Apparently, a heated verbal argument began over which side of the closet a particular sweater, that they share, was too be hung. 

C'mon girls how ticky tack can you get?

 Dad went in to tell them that this little tiff needed to end....like NOW. 

Even after his warning, the arguing still continued with Emma ending up in tears.

 Dad {uncharacteristically} lost it. 

He was mad! 

He ordered those two to get dressed pronto. He then proceeded to march them outside where not only did they sweep out the garage, but cleared the street gutter in front of the house of any wet, dead leaves & garbage as well as the basement stairwell. {we caught that one on camera but since lost it}

too bad because it was kinda funny seeing those two working together under the circumstances. 

Then he made them come inside and work me....Scrubbing under the stove top burners, the shower and other parts of the bathroom. 

{Needless to say we don't put up with much crap around here.}

and I think they learned their lesson. 

We are in the middle of a long weekend due to the holiday tomorrow. Just as we were gett'in into the routine they are out of school again. This time for two days. Three for B. Olivia. But I'm not complaining. We started celebrating on Friday by making the cutest winter cake. But since this post is getting a little lengthy, I'll post it another day...so stay tuned.  

What's On My Happy List?

                                                     THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2011

Still no luck with my blog background mess. grr. Must wait until the neighborhood computer whiz makes a visit home for the weekend from college. {and that might be awhile.} In the meantime I'm going to keep post'in despite my non friendly terms with all things EDIT HTML.

Emma had her art show last weekend. This is one of the projects that she worked on this quarter. Grandma C. loves lighthouses. So Emma surprised her with this painting for Christmas. 

I think she needs to paint me the Eiffel Tower.

That same night of the art show we had a wedding reception to go to AND a work party for Jaren. As we were b-bopp'in from place to place, Kyleigh and Emma tended the younger girls. Kate wasn't cooperating and wouldn't go to bed. Instead she passed out on the living room floor. exhausted. They sent me this pic via cell phone...

Priceless

On to other randomness....

I'm not a huge New Year's lover. no secret there. I dread the day the kids go back to school from winter break and dad is back to normal work hours. How come the worst day of the year has to follow the best week of the year? huh, tell me? We had to have a "brave party" the Sunday night that the holidays were officially over. Served chocolate pudding with a dose of courage. no lie.

Now that we are two weeks in, and back to the routine, we are in the groove and things feel normal.

Which is very nice. 

With the brand new year and new start, New Years Resolutions are in order for many. Unfortunately, I'm not a huge goal setter kind of gal. I should be better at it. But fortunately, I know what works and doesn't work for me in my life and where I need to make improvements, so I kinda just go from there without being too official about it..... 

May I share a few things that have worked for me lately and which I'm going to try my darnedest to continue with into the new year? I'm breaking these insights, suggestions, tips {whatever you want to call them} into 4 categories. Home, Physical, Spiritual, and Beauty/Fashion.

 First off the THE HOME.

One of my favorite subjects...truly.

I love all things organization and am tickled when I come across something that actually works for my family.

A friend suggested this to me a few months back, and it has helped tremendously. It has to do with the LAUNDRY. my absolute nemesis.I actually think at times that I don't need to take a trip to Italy because I have the Leaning Tower of Pisa right in my very own laundry room! lovely. The tower is made up of clothes and lots of them. Naturally expected, of course, with a houseful of girls.

Here's the trick..get a different color basket for each member of your family to put their clean clothes in once they come out of the dryer. Brilliant. Its such a simple concept and why I never thought to implement this idea sooner is a mystery to me. But this folks will change your life,  unless you are already the type that folds and puts the laundry away after each load, EVERY TIME.  {Laundry queen you}

I know that ain't happen'in around here so these baskets at least help me keeps things organized until everyone has the time to put their own clean laundry away. These will help cut down on the piles and piles of clean laundry in baskets, and or on your bed etc. Not saying these baskets have fixed all my laundry woes, there is still always wash for 7 to do here, and we still have to have the occasional "folding party" {as I like to call them} when we get behind, but these baskets sure help.

Another suggestion.

Have your older kids be responsible for their own wash. Kyleigh and Emma, 14 and 12 do their own wash. And have for awhile now. Not that I don't occasionally help them but they are certainly old enough and capable enough to do it on their own. It lightens my load and the bonus....you don't get blamed for something that doesn't get cleaned in a timely manner. Win win situation for me.  

On to my second home organization tip.....the Food Nanny.

Just heard about  HER in November.

I don't have her cookbook nor do I do everything she does but I have adopted her basic plan for nightly family dinners. Once again, this will change your life. Has mine, even more so than the laundry baskets!  It has taken the guess work out of "whats for dinner? I love food but its never been my favorite thing to fix it day in and day out. And I certainly was never consistent. I thank the Lord for a husband who actually likes to cook. {And for Costco} Now, after implementing the Food Nanny's nightly theme nights, I half don't mind fixing dinner. seriously. Its also made grocery shopping easier for me as well. Now, on a side note, this plan is all about the food, no themed decor with any of this. That would be way turbo. 

This is how it works...On Mondays you fix something that would be under COMFORT FOOD. So whatever that means to your family. For us it would be a potato bar, soup with grilled cheese, a casserole like Shepherd's Pie. etc. Alot of Mondays we use leftovers from Sunday afternoon's big family meal with Jaren's side, as there is always a ton of food fixed at those gatherings. 

Tuesday is ITALIAN night. My kids finally will eat food with red sauce. YEAH! {however, sloppy joes and meatloaf are still on their steer clear list} Not that those are Italian anyway, but your basic Italian like spaghetti with meatballs, lasagna etc. are becoming staples and fast favorites at this establishment{its about time!}. Chicken parmesan and cheese & meat ravioli also make the weekly menu.

Wednesday night is FISH or MEATLESS..tilapia, salmon, tuna casserole are some of our fav's. This is also the night you could do breakfast for dinner. Which we all love, except for poor Kyleigh, who is not a huge breakfast food lover. I see nothing wrong with having pancakes, scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner. Some men might have a fit over that but mine doesn't.  Thursday is MEXICAN night. Bean and cheese quesadillas, crock pot burrito pie, tacos, and nachos, which are a huge favorite around here. 

Friday night is PIZZA night. Our first choice is to make our own with a ready made crust from Papa Murphey's. Sometimes we buy it from Papa John's, Caesars or have IV's pizza benders. 

For the Food Nanny, Saturday night is GRILL NIGHT. We kinda do whatever, {maybe a night out with the spouse} since we don't BBQ as much in the winter. Summer yes. Jaren actually rocks at grilling and just fixing meat in general. The nice thing about this whole Food Nanny thing is that you can adapt it to your family's likes and needs. Sunday is TRADITIONS..like I said, we eat with Jaren's side of the family every Sunday, taking a turn to cook every third week. We keep things simple and quick as possible during the week. but Sunday's meal is a little more special. Sometimes we will have themed dinners and even decorate if its a holiday or special occasion. 

Another useful tip at dinnertime: I'm all about presentation, but if its just an ordinary night, I'm all about the paper plate. Its more important to me that we are all sitting at the dinner table rather than a beautifully set table. Can't complain about less dishes to do. :)

Moving on to PHYSICAL HEALTH...

Can I just share with you that I am 50 lbs lighter than I was the day I delivered baby Kate. woot! woot! It's been a journey. I wasn't able to nurse Kate, as my milk supply was extremely low, so that didn't help me in the weight department. Since Sept. I've made a concentrated effort to drop some pounds. 20 of them! Basically by being very conscious of what goes in my mouth. Eating foods with more protein and fiber so I feel fuller and eat less. Sweet consumption has been cut drastically. Self control and determination have been my buddies. {Even maintained during the holidays}, but I didn't necessarily deprive myself either. Words from Dr. Oz got me motivated. He says if you cut out sugary soda, {which I don't drink much of that anyway}, not eat past 8:00, move 10 min/day, not eat snacks larger than your fist and track your weight daily {I weigh myself only once a week} you will loose pounds. The last two weeks I've found a way to sneak in 20 minutes of Pilate's on weekday mornings and I know that has huge benefits for me too. I hate to exercise {not kidding there} so Pilate's and maybe some jogging in the spring and summer is about all you are going to get out of me. I've made progress yes, lost the weight I gained with baby Kate, but still need to loose those pesky pounds that crept on between baby #4 and #5. Wish me luck, I'm going to need it, {because its more than a few!}

On to BEAUTY and FASHION

If you haven't tried this lash blast fusion mascara from Cover Girl, you are missing out! This is our current favorite. Not looking back. It's a keeper.

Also hoping some of the latest trends don't go away anytime soon. Love the big chunky rings that are in. We've got a few...

the patterned tights...love them!

picture courtesy of Fashion me Fabulous

The long boots that go to your knee....love, love these!

 As well as the belts that go around your upper waist that help your figure.  {Please don't go away any time soon}....

Lastly SPIRITUAL....

I just have to say that I love the Book of Mormon! My day goes so much better when I take the time to read and or study them. Even if it's one verse, but I make a goal for five. {okay, okay so I do set a few goals} haha. But the one single thing that has helped me the most when reading them is using a study companion. The church's approved Student Manual is an excellent choice. Or, when reading those hard to understand "compare to Isaiah chapters" I use the "Isaiah Made Easier" from the gospel study series. It truly is fascinating to me as Isaiah's mysteries are unfolded. You won't be afraid of Isaiah ever again. Honestly love it! Our Stake President has encouraged our Stake to read the Book of Mormon within six months. We've decided to do this as a family. What a feat with little ones to be consistent in reading it every night. So far right on track..I pray it continues.

Another spiritual tip for the new year. Try to do something nice for someone every day. Even if its sending a smile someones way, or a quick text or email to say HI. It will make your heart smile. We call them warm fuzzies at our house. I ask my kids at the dinner table all the time, {its become a ritual} what they've done nice for somebody else that day. Love the responses I get. 

Hope everyone's year is off to a great start....

Would love to hear your ideas for improvement in 2011!

 

What's On My Happy List?

Out with the old, In with the new. NOT!
oh my oh my oh my...I was hoping to get around to posting, since its been awhile, as well as de christma-tize my blog by changing my background {which I've done a gazillion times before} but something has gone terribly wrong this time. I've tried and tried but I can't seem to fix it. UGH! I'm afraid this baby is going to be under re construction for a bit. SO not happy about this. Off now to have nightmares about losing my former blog template.

What's On My Happy List?

                                                 New Year's Eve
Jaren and I celebrated with brunch at one of our favorite restaurants..New Years Eve was spent with the family at my brother's home. We adults laughed ourselves silly watching the comedian, Brian Regan {hilarious dude}. We visited, ate apple pie, and played a couple of games while the kids danced the night away until the countdown from Times Square. Then we made some noise! Pot and pans banging, poppers, kiddos running up and down the icy sidewalks in what I swear was single digit weather...fur--eez---ing!  It was 1:25 AM before my head hit the pillow! I believe I had a non alcoholic hangover the next morning.

New Years Day

My side of the family had one last shin dig with my nephew before he leaves for his mission on Wednesday. We thought it would be fun to drive down to Provo and do a dry run of the MTC drop off with him. Curbside style. Ya know snap some pics as the door of the rolling car opens, missionary jumps out as his luggage is tossed to him. That's the way its done now, didn't ya know? hahaha! And apparently only ONE car full of family allowed per missionary at drop off, {so we hear.} 

So....

knowing that all of us couldn't be there to bid him farewell on the real day we hoped to rein act it. Well, upon arriving it was made very clear, from the very worried guard, that our four car, 21 people entourage was not welcomed on the MTC "closed campus" premises. Emma, also knowing you are not allowed to leave the MTC while there, other than go to the temple asked, "What is this place, a prison?" {Yes, actually it is, we explained..just a spiritual one} Too funny.

scheming to figure out Plan B...do we sneak in?

Rather we had Matt get as close as he could to the MTC, standing just outside the forbidden gates

while we waved to him from across the street....I'm sure to any onlookers we looked pretty darn nutso. But that's okay cuz we kinda are. Our family secret is out!

trekking over snowy banks and ice patches in, once again, fur--eez--ing temps...

"the field is white, Matt, and ready to harvest".....

We went to dinner and then caught the evening BYU Basketball game at the Marriott Center...way too fun!

Poor dad had to miss watching the Rose Bowl, {he was less than pleased about that} to see the #16th ranked Cougars completely stomp on their opponent 93-57. He was a good sport {sort of }and even wore his BYU shirt under his sweatshirt. Pretty sure he wouldn't want you to know that tho, due to his so called loyalty to the school up north.  

What? {With all the noise even}