Spring Fever....

Oh SPRING FEVER!!!!  It's SPRING!  My tree is blossoming (please Heavenly Father don't send a frost, I love my blossoms)  my kids are sneezing (and coming down with random unexplainable fevers)  and the children have LOST their focus.  Today was gorgeous and because it was an amazing day, it took us FOUR hours to do 11 math problems.  I took a mom break and cleaned out the car.  Isn't it funny, I see spring on one side and turn around and still have Christmas hanging up... Sigh...

Liam FINALLY finished his math and so I set the timer and told him to go jump for 15 minutes.(Which then became and hour)  Emery a glutton for punishment joined in the fun... This is Liam torturing Em...

This is Emery telling on Liam while he plays innocent in the background...

Oh but see they really do like each other after all!

We went to the dentist today.  The kids were awesome.  Clean bill of health all around!  Colin ( who has a fever for some strange reason that I can't find)  decided to put his stickers all over his shirt.  EVERY single one of them... Pretty cute....messy faced boy....

And Last but DEFINATELY NOT least.  While Liam and Em are out enjoying the weather and driving mom crazy, sweet Isa is dutifully and determinately finishing all of her tasks for school  Thank you sis for being so dilligent.  NOW GO PLAY!!! hee hee

Happy Early Spring everyone!

Fell OFF the wagon...

I am going to bed with  my house a DISASTER!  Yep, I fell off my wagon and tonight I am not in the cleaning mood, so I guess its going to be an early morning so I can jump back on...  Before I head off to bed, I just wanted to share my awesome deal!!!  Never in my life did I think we would need more than one computer, but with three kids homeschooling and most of what we do is online, more than one computer is a necessity for survival of the children...  We have been blessed to have two wonderful computers, however, Liam's FAVORITE excuse for not doing school is that he can't get on the computer to check his daily plan...*SCOFF*  well, my beautiful friend Heidi let me know that her friend was selling a laptop for 150.00. It's been gently used for the last six months and has microsoft office.  HALLELUJIA!!!  YES!!!  I"LL TAKE IT!!!  ha NO more EXCUSES from my eldest!  We have enough for everyone! Ha ha!  I'm STOKED!!!!!

Sweet moment

I love sleepy kids.  Not  when they are beyond sleepy but at the just fall asleep anywhere sleepy.  I came down from putting, my baby K buddy down for a nap and found this....

Does this not just melt your heart.  I love him so much!

Love

 I've decided that my mom ROCKED holidays.  She made them WAY more fun than I do.  I remember every holiday was some kind of celebration whether it was awesome homemade cookies, beautiful valentine's day boxes or corn beef and cabbage (bleck)  sorry mom, still not my favorite.  She made each holiday stand out as something special.  Thanks mom, I now realize how much effort that took and how LAZY I am.  You are amazing and I am grateful you are my mom.  This year my goal is to keep the house clean, next year I'll add decorate and plan something for for at least 6 holidays. hee hee

Check out my cheesy, cheeky monkeys.  Just so you know, boys don't celebrate Valentines with hearts red or pink in our house.  They celebrate with CAMO!

 Sweet Isa, She had hearts on her shirt and heart braids in her hair....

Em had heart hair too, but didn't have a valentine's shirt so we found one with stains on it ( Not at all a tough thing to do.  HOLY COW that girl is hard on clothes!!!  and I stink at laundry!!!!)  Anyway, within ten minutes said stains were now well hidden under cute hearts and Em was a happy Valentine all by herself. 

I spent the day dressed to the nines for an hour while I met a good friend for lunch and then dressed down to cozy grubbies.  Perfect way to spend valentine's day.  I hope your day was filled with love and joy!  I truly am blessed with four little valentines to keep me company while Morgan is away.  LIFE IS GREAT!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

                      HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

So to celebrate and make a fun night for my kids we had a family home evening valentine's day party with some friends.  Liam travelled off with a friend to see Star Wars 3-D and then met us for .... drum roll please... BOWLING!!!  It was so much fun! 13 kids and 4 moms.   It was crazy and wild and loud and seriously fun!  I love the different expressions of joy and shock and excitement you get when you bowl.  Even the kids dissappointment faces are funny.  I should have taken a video there was a lot of jumping and squealing.  Liam did make it bowling too, but by then there were too many kids wearing out and the camera  was hindering my ability to enjoy, so I put it away and spent the rest of the evening high fiving kids, and hugging emery for good luck.  What a night!   I am beat so it's off to bed I go!  PS.  The counters are still clean and my sink is empty of dishes, my laundry is two loads away from being done. LIFE IS GOOD!!!!

Facebook Detox day # 3

OK.  So I decided to pull the plug on facebook for a month due to the fact that I am truly addicted.  I check it way too many times in a day and find myself thinking in status updates all day long.  So long story short I asked Morgan to change my password and I am now finishing up day 3.  Surprisingly, I have found that I am a little more patient with my kids... That I have interacted more with them and been more focused on helping with school instead of sneaking facebook... And have had a sudden burst of cleansing furor.  I'm not sure if that's a good use of that word or not, but it seem fitting.  Anyway, In three days I have started and finished two books.  Granted they are children's chapter books, but it's an accomplishment! I have also cleaned the crystals in the chandelier, organized my bathroom closet, cleared all the spiderwebs from the ceiling and windows, cleaned and scrubbed out the fridge and organized four of the five rooms downstairs.  Before you get all excited for me, I did leave the school room for last, but still it's something!   I even took pictures as proof! hee hee  So without further ado, here is the proof...

Mom do you recognize that purse from your college days? 
I LOVE IT!!!!

This is rare!  Do you see what I see?  It's the counter tops AMAZING!!!!!!  Don't tell my husband, he'll be jealous!  I think he's only seen this sight on the rarest of occasions.

This is the room I tackle tomorrow.  It's been a good day and I feel like I made a difference in my world.  So Happy Day #3!

from my personal journal

I dragged this post out just for the fun of it.  I was reading a post from a friend's blog about the daily mess and realistic day to day struggles and thought of this journal entry.  Sometimes, I think the rose colored glasses come in the realization that we aren't perfect and that the world is beautiful because of our imperfections...

Tonight, I sat at the computer after a decent day and started my taxes. I thought of turning on netflix while I worked, but for some reason didn't. I finished as much as I could without the necessary paperwork and then went on to start the paperword to modify our house loan. I randomly went to look something up on the internet and pulled up my home page which is lds.org. I randomly clicked on the link to the I am a mormon videos and have literally spent the last hour watching all these amazing stories and lives...It makes me realize how grateful I am for the life I live and the blessing I have. I am grateful for a partially empty fridge and the because I realize that I had enough to get me through the week. I am grateful for the reminder to stop a moment and see the children I have and be grateful for the opportunity to share every day with them. I have been a distracted and cranky mom lately...

The Elders popped by this week to introduce themselves officially into the branch. I was mortified. The house was a DISASTER! The kids were running around screaming and sword fighting. The laundry was spread all over the school room, the cushions were once again off the couch and every single toy was unceremoniously scattered across the floor. It was CHAOS and here I was supposedly schooling my kids. To be fair, I had two extras and I was schooling the older two while the younger two occupied the extras. Anyway, the one sweet elder, looked around and asked" Is it always like this? In my moment of embarrassment, I thought to myself, yep, yep it is... my life is always chaos, and yes this is me keepin it real. The elders left and I laughed to myself and took these photos to share on facebook as a "ha ha great moment" type thing

Funny the comments from friends were anything but judgmental. Most comments reflected the joy of motherhood. There was lots of encouragement for the creativity and love reflected in letting kids be kids and allowing our chaos to build creativity... I was looking back at these photos and just noticed Liam giving me the I love you sign while he is sword fighting his brother. You know, life is full of all kinds of moments, it's what we do with those moments that counts. It's taking the time to be grateful for the chaos. I can't say I was the best mom this day. I let the embarrassment get to me. I got cranky, I made everyone clean, I made my kids feel my disappointment in the fact that they didn't get enough school done. I forgot to treasure a moment and be grateful that my kids are creative, fun, wonderful kids. Hind sight is 20/20 and today I see my mistakes and I want this next year, month, week, day to be one where I can see what is right in front of me.

A day where I value the blessings the Lord has given me! And let that grattitude and value be known

God is good. He loves me, he gave me the most amazing, forgiving, love me in my weakness family to teach me how to achieve my divine potential.

Now it's my job/privilege to let those I am most grateful for know it. Know their value in my eyes and feel my love for them.