My Own Private Idaho

Topher's Birthday

2009-11-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

Topher blowing out his candles
Topher designed his own Drum set birthday cake...looks pretty good!

Topher turns 10!

Topher was very excited about being in double digits! He has been such a great addition to our family. Ever since his head popped out 10 years ago, Topher has always made a lasting impression! Topher makes friends easily, is very smart and a great little athlete. Topher likes a lot of things and most come very easily to him. This year has been an adjustment being in the gifted classroom. I think it has rocked his world to not feel like the smartest person in the room. He has risen to the challenge though and is making adjustments to his study habits-of which there were none prior to this year, and I think he is doing pretty well. I love how Topher introduces himself as "Christopher Topher Bisgaard Calder." He is a funny kid! I just love Topher!

Boys decorating the cake

Football Wrap Up

2009-11-29T13:17:00.000-08:00

We had a lot of fun with Topher playing football this year. His team wasn't the best, but they improved a lot and Topher was really able to contribute. I think the last few games he played every down. He would be so tired at the end, and hungry! You would have to ask him about how many times he stripped the ball, sacked the quarterback, recovered a fumble, etc...Topher kept track but I didn't. I just know it was really fun to see how much he loved playing football. It will be fun to see him over the next few years.Topher is on the right wearing blue socks with black chin strap-getting set to get the ball!
Getting the handoff...Breaking through the line...Can he break another tackle?
No, he was brought down-he did score a touchdown-actually a pretty good feat for his team, for a time he had scored half the points with one touchdown going into the fourth game...I said his team wasn't the best! He threw a touchdown pass later as a halfback back to the quarterback and ran in a couple of extra points. There were a couple of times he didn't get the ball in short yardage and we didn't score, I would talk to the coach about it after-no wonder the coach nicknamed me the "team critic!" Here's to next year!

Jacob's Birthday

2009-11-29T13:02:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Jacob is already 6! He is my Massachusetts baby and I can't believe it's been so long since we moved. Jacob is such a smart little boy, I just love him. He is also not afraid of expressing his opinions and really notices things about others. He can tell you what everyone's favorite of anything is, including kids in his class-like what is Ty's favorite color? He'd know. He always asks questions, he'll even ask me how my day was. Jacob wanted a guitar cake, he hasn't been playing the Guitar Hero game as much, but he still wanted the cake. It was a fun birthday!

Football Season Starts

2009-09-06T07:52:00.000-07:00

Every year the first football game of the year is at Boise State. For the past two years, Topher has played flag and they play on a field on campus. This year, they got to play inside the stadium on the powerful blue turf. It was pretty exciting. Topher did great and his team did well too. Topher played Offensive Line and blew a hole so big you could have driven a truck threw it...the running back scored a touchdown on the first play, and then on the next play they made 16 yards. Then, they switched who was up against Topher to the biggest guy on their team. He still did great, but he didn't make quite such big holes anymore. It was really fun to see Topher out there tackling. He has been waiting so long for this. We were worried that he wouldn't make weight and that he would have to play with the next age group, but he made it. The max was 115 with pads, and I think he weighed 111-this was with full gear. Now we are in the clear, at least until next year!
Jay is helping coach and having a great time. The head coach is a local weather man so that is pretty hilarious. He doesn't have a son on the team, he just really enjoys it. It is a nice group of kids and coaches. It was a really fun day, and we are looking forward to the season!!

First Day of School

2009-09-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the summer is over! We had a lot of fun and boy was I ready for the kids to go back to school! Although after the first day I am ready for a break-fortunately we have a 4 day weekend this weekend to regroup. The kids all did great. Anna headed off to middle school-I can't believe she is in middle school-first in the morning. She went with her carpool and was quite nervous about opening her locker, but she got it all figured out and had a great day. Our neighbor is in most of her classes, and a lot of her friends are in orchestra with her as well. She was exhausted when she got home, but I think she will do great.
The boys went to their new school too. Jacob even said he was really nervous while I was driving them to school. The place was packed, I had to carry Sharon about a mile. I took Jacob to his classroom and got him settled. He knew a couple of boys in there, so that was nice. They both had a great day but were starving and exhausted when they got home. Topher's class is doing a town project and they are starting businesses, so he was excited about that. He said he wanted to be a lawyer, but I told him when I did that, the most successful venture was a candy store. I told him I had a music store and made mix tapes for people, he looked at me like I was speaking a foreign language. I told him the lamest thing someone did was to have a button museum, where you paid to look at buttons. He decided he wanted to have a poop museum and they both thought that was hilarious. You just have to love little boys-and big ones too, because Jay thought that was pretty funny too! Anyway, we'll see how the town goes this year.
Looking forward to a great year!

Topher's Piano Recital

2009-08-10T14:28:00.000-07:00

Topher is a good pianist and did a great job at his recital. He wanted this crazy mohawk, so I let him get it-it is going to be hard to say no to hairstyles in the future when he reminds me of the insanity I let him have as a nine year old, but oh well, how bad can it get? Get back to me in 10 years! Topher is soo funny when he introduces himself because he says his name is "Christopher Topher Bisgaard Calder." It is a little silly, but whatever, he makes me laugh. It was a nice recital and nicer to have it done!

Kindergarten Graduation

2009-08-10T14:11:00.000-07:00

Jacob had such a great year at kindergarten. I was really worried about him when school started. He was the youngest one in his class and since he is such a hot head, I thought he was going to be in the principal's office quite regularly. He surprised me, and did so well. His teacher said there is no way he can repeat, and is ready for 1st grade. I still think he is really little, but he does great and has friends and is right in the thick of things, so I think he will do fine. I still never got the digital copy of his singing for the school assembly, but the kind of proves to me that he is pretty confident and happy!
His graduation was so cute, they sang songs and Jacob knew all the words and actions and he got a huge smile on his face when he got his "diploma." I think the whole concept of kindgarten graduation is stupid, but it was cute to see him in his hat. I wish they called it a kindergarten program, but I am not in charge, obviously! Anyway, we all went to IHOP after, and waited forever for food, but Jacob loved it and it was his special day. I am really proud of how well he did and I am excited for first grade-although I can't believe he will be gone all day-how sad!

Baseball Seaon Wrap up-Very Belated

2009-08-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

OK-it has been a long while, but with summer and having to wait in line for the computer, I have gotten way behind! So, quick wrap up of the baseball season. Topher's team was really bad, but he was the best one on it and had a great time. He was the catcher and caught every inning. It was a tough job because they had horrible pitchers that threw the ball 5 feet inside one pitch and 5 feet outside the next. He was always soo tired after a game. His coach told the boys if they hit it in the outfield they would get a candy bar, so he usually got a couple of candy bars after the game to pep him up. He improved a lot and had a lot of fun. He didn't like it when his dad called strikes on him, or didn't call a strike for his pitcher. He was on top of the pitch count and the outs and kept his team in line. He had a really nice coach and had a great year.

Anna had a great team and we had a great time. I was the assistant and it was really fun to be involved. It is pretty much the same group of girls we've had for the past four years, so it is really fun to see their progress. Anna's team won the district championship and that was really exciting. The couple of weeks of playoff games was really fun and exciting. Anna did great and really contributed to her team. Anna always knows what she should do with the ball and is a great bunter which helps a lot. I loved coaching her and her team! Go Royal Thunder!

Super Saturday

2009-05-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

It was the best of times and the worst of times yesterday...Let's start with the positive...
Anna has been involved with her first play since January. It was a spin on Pinnochio set in current times, and it was a musical. So, yesterday was the debut performance and we were all very excited. Anna had a couple of solos, and she was really ready and raring to go. She did such a great job and we were so proud of her. It was so fun to see her up there with the microphone belting out her songs-belting being a very positive word in that sentence...she was great! She loved it and had a great time. She was very worn out after the end of two perfomances and a lot rehearsal this past week. It was definitely worth all the hard work though and everyone enjoyed it, well, maybe not Baby Sharon so much or anyone who had to sit around her, but everyone else did.So then, on to the sadness of yesterday. Topher had batting practice in the morning and got hit by a pitch going 60 mph in the face. He was really hurt and we were really worried about him. Jay took him to the urgent care and they sent him to the ER to get a head CT. Meanwhile, I am at home without my babysitter, Topher, and without my date for the matinee, Jay. I had to take the two little kids to my mom's and go to the play while I was sick with worry about Topher, but the show must go on. Jay kept texting me with updates and we were worried that his face might have a fracture or that he might have a concussion. After all the tests, it seems like he is OK. He is in a great deal of pain, and has been throwing up, so if he throws up again, we are supposed to go back to the ER. He and I both had a pretty miserable night last night. I was falling asleep watching Zach and Cody at 1 in the morning, and he requested a plate of pasta-what a nut, but I was happy to get him whatever. So, he is now eating french fries and hopefully he will start feeling better. I have to run to teach my Primary lesson, but I am not staying for Sharing time, and Jay has to go to Nursery, what a fun Sunday-at least we'll have tomorrow to rest!

Quick Update

2009-03-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

I guess I can update my blog by simply posting about all the destruction that has been happening around my house as of late. Baby Sharon is fairly significant contributor to the mayhem! She has dumped out an entire bottle of shampoo on the carpet upstairs, and to follow that up, squirted out a brand-new tube of bright blue toothpaste all over the carpet too. I went upstairs yesterday and as my blood was boiling from the mess after everyone told me it was "100% perfect" only to find there was a fluid spilled all over the playroom carpet. The kids tried to blame my mom's dog that isn't even in the state right now, so I sat them all down and waited until someone told me the truth...eventually Jacob admitted he spilled, and it was diet coke. What was he doing with a diet coke upstairs, and how could he spill such a wonderful drink? Anyway, we got that cleaned up and the rooms are/were 100% clean-probably aren't anymore, but we tried.
Anna and I were baking cookie brownies yesterday, and I had a cube of melted butter on the counter which she knocked off and made a huge greasy mess. I was slipping and sliding all over my kitchen floor, and I wasn't all that pleasant about it! We did get the treats made and they were delicious!
One more mess to report, while I was working on school with Anna, Jacob decided he needed a little "frosting fix" and went and opened a tub of cream cheese frosting. He and the baby were in my bed, watching cartoons-probably something very educational, both with spoons eating from the tub of frosting! I kept taking it away, but Sharon has discovered the ability to move chairs around so she can get what she wants off counters, so I kept finding her with the frosting along with a lot of evidence all over the house, eventually, I threw the dumb thing away! Serves them right!
Everything else is plugging away. It has been nice to have a break between basketball and baseball seasons. The kids start practice this week, so we will get busy again! Poor Jacob isn't on a team, and when I told the other kids about their teams, he asked what team he was on. In my mind I thought, "you are on the I'm a third child and my mom is barely holding it together and there is no way she can deal with t-ball games this year team!"
We are looking forward to Spring Break next week and a quick visit to Rexburg!
By the way, my basketball team made it to the semi-finals of our tournament and we only beat one other team the whole season! Do the math on that one! It was a really fun season though and I am glad I did it-one more soccer game this week and then I am back 100% on the kids!

Anna tuns 11!

2009-02-12T16:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that we have an eleven year old in the house! Anna has aged about 5 years in the past month. She is now way too cool for many things, and there are lots of things that she now thinks are cool that she used to have no interest in. It is fun to see the transformation, but I am also nervous about the next few years, especially knowing how I acted and it seems like you get a little payback in your parenting, and I don't want it! We had a fun birthday. Anna was really excited because her birthday was on a Saturday. She had a sleepover the night before, so she was exhausted the entire day, but she had fun. She had a special breakfast at my mom's, with lots of whipped cream, I cooked two pounds of bacon and there was none left! My dad also went and picked up Krispy Kremes just in case there was anyone who didn't get enough fat or sugar. She had a basketball game and did great, and then we went to Outback for dinner. We went home and opened presents and had carrot cake for dessert. It was a very fun day! I am really happy to have Anna in our family. She is such a fun girl and we are having a lot of fun doing home schooling. Anna is a lot happier and we are making good progress.

Local Celebrity

2009-01-30T06:42:00.000-08:00

I went in to Kindergarten yesterday, and as Jacob and I were walking through the halls, a couple of teachers said, "hey, can you sing some Bon Jovi?" to Jacob. Jacob has never been an on call performer. He is a master of ignoring you when you speak right at him. So, I was shocked when he immediately started singing about "Johnnie on the docks all day." He belted out the chorus and we had quite an audience by the time the song was finished. I was cracking up about the experience. It did impress upon me the fact that my son is at school having experiences that I don't know about and I am not a part of which is strange. I am glad though that he is getting over his shyness and he loves his Guitar Hero! He told me that "Mr. Crowley" is sung by Ozzy Ozzborne too, just like "Crazy Train." He did start singing the "Ay, ay, ay" part of Crazy Train in the middle of the sacrament, so maybe the performing bug needs to be put on hold a bit!

So Long Brace Face!

2009-01-23T06:06:00.000-08:00

I am so happy to have my braces off! I have gone in the past three times thinking my braces were coming off, but my hopes were dashed. Finally, they are off! Things are very different from when I first got my braces off. Retainers are way different. I now have a wire glued to the back of my bottom teeth. The retainer for my top looks like I have Invisalign braces. Baby Sharon constantly wants to touch it. At least I can talk properly with it in, so that is a nice change.

I went in to Topher's classroom after I went to the ortho's and he didn't even notice my teeth. I guess he was ticked at me since I was telling him his poster for his country report looked like something Jacob could have done. Mostly I was just shocked that he selected Pakistan for his country. One of the quotes from his poster "Famous people-Chris and Anna found a statue that turned out to be a god." Packed with information right? It really makes you feel informed about Chris and Anna, and also impressed that they are the most famous people to come out of Pakistan. He claims he chose that country aften their "Pennies for Peace" campaign at their school. Valid reason, but I have yet to receive an explination about "Chris and Anna." It must be his Danish great-great granparents on a trip to Pakistan!

Thanks, Topher

2009-01-19T19:08:00.000-08:00

So, I made some bread the other day, and it wasn't rising very fast, so I cut one loaf up into rolls, and then I used some leftover from that and threw it on the other loaf and baked it. I also put some sugar and cinnamon on it since the kids were dying that it was wheat. Whenever I make bread they beg me to stop and want storebought instead. I really do make it properly, they just really like their refined flour! Anyway, I came out to cut a warm slice of my bread, and I found a mangled mess! Topher decided to cut himself a slice which ordinarily would be OK, but he decided to cut right out of the middle. I am not a fan of the crust either, but right out of the middle? What a nut! So, my bread looked hideous. Topher took his church shirt off, but then put his vest back on and he has a horrible fingernail scratch on his face from Anna from a remote fight. Jay gets mad at her for hurting him, but I vividly remember feeling completely helpless against my bigger stronger brother and I used whatever means necesary to get him off me. I think he had some pretty serious fingernail scratches and some injuries in some other parts of his body that will remain nameless! So, the picture is not to demonstrate my wonderful homemaking skills, but shows how nutty my son is!

Why are Kids so Gross?

2009-01-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Well, we had our second morning in a row of waking up to a wet bed. Yesterday was OK because at least then I changed his sheets, but today? Come on, those sheets were clean! I asked him if he wanted to wear pull-ups again, but he adamantly refuses. He has one more chance and then he has no more say in the matter. He has been staying up super late in his room playing and then he sleeps in late, which is nice, but not so nice to change sheets.
Anyway, the thing that really grossed me out today was Baby Sharon. She was walking around with her mouth full of food which I incorrectly assumed was her lovingly prepared frozen waffle. She decided she would rather eat cat food for breakfast. When I was getting her dressed, all this brown juice started pouring out of her mouth. I was dry heaving at the smell, and then she was spitting out this disgusting mess. I don't get babies. What is with the disgustingness? I love Sharon to death, but my stomach can't take much more!
On a lighter, and cleaner note, Jacob has moved his repertoire up to 6 or 7 songs on Guitar Hero now. He loves "Livin' On A Prayer," "Hotel California," "The Joker" which cracks me up when he sings about being a "midnight toquer" "Float On," "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Heartbreaker." "Eye of the Tiger" is still a huge favorite. When I picked Jacob up at school yesterday, the duty told me how much he loves to sing. Who knows which one of these great songs he was yelling while waiting at the parent pick up yesterday? Anyway, the game is really fun.
So, I guess the summary of this entry is that kids are pretty gross, but they are fun and cute anyway. I can see that when playing a game, but not so much when I am gagging at the smell of partially digested cat food!

Jane of all Trades

2009-01-08T06:30:00.000-08:00

I don't know if that is a real expression, but since I am a female, and I did a lot of different things yesterday, I decided to coin a new phrase. I started my day playing basketball. It was fun, but interesting to switch gears from being competitive on the court to chasing around a toddler and wanting a few minutes to myself to do what is really good for me. Then, I dropped Jacob off at a playdate-my not so favorite job of being a chauffeur, but since I was leaving him somewhere, it made it just fine. We got home and I helped Anna with her school work. We have gone back to homeschooling as of this week. It just seems to be a better fit for her, so we'll see how it goes. That role I like, but it leaves my other roles with less time. When we did her science experiment on Tuesday, I asked her to dump her aquifer we made in a 2 liter plastic bottle into a grocery sack and then to put it in the trash. Somehow that translated into dumping a cup each of gravel, sand, clay and top soil into the garbage disposal. It was a total mess, so that was my next job, to fix the garbage disposal. I read on the internet how to do it, and got out my allen wrench and started cranking. I got it to work and I was quite proud of myself! My next role was as concerned wife. My basketball team had a bye this week so we decided to play a game against our husbands. Well, Jay twisted his knee the first play of the game and so he went to the doctor the next morning when it still was hurting. I kept calling him to find out what the doctor said, he waited forever to find out that he has a sprained knee. I think we can safely say that Jay's basketball career is over. Later in the day I had to take Topher to the doctor, he has croup, but should be fine. Then I went to get my hair done and this was probably my favorite part of the day. I liked my role of pampered lady best of all, but not nearly as rewarding as some of my other jobs I accomplished earlier in the day. I can say it was very rewarding to not see any more roots! Well, I got a lot done today, and tomorrow I get to do it all over again-at least the garbage disposal is fixed!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

Well, last night was quite a New Year's. Jay went to California with my dad on Tuesday to go the Rose Bowl Game, so right there it was already kind of a bummer. Jay had a great day in Pasadena though so that was nice-for him! He went swimming at the big aquatic center by the Rose Bowl, and went to movies. He went to my favorite Mexican restaurant and I am pretty sure he went to In-N-Out too, but he knew I probably couldn't hear about that so he didn't tell me. Anyway, after dropping my brother off at the airport after some much un-needed (is that a word?) trauma and drama, I stopped at Krispy Kreme on the way home for the kids. Let me just tell you, if you ever need to feel pathetic, just go into Krispy Kreme alone and order doughnuts by yourself on New Year's Eve! When I got home all the kids were upstairs watching Spongebob and Jacob and the baby ran over and gave me big hugs. I didn't feel like such the loser anymore, so that was nice. I tried to get the kids interested in watching the New Year's TV shows, but they just wanted to watch Nick reruns. I usually convince them we are doing a Boston New Year's, but this year they really wanted to stay up. I let them and we had a nice time. When I put Jacob to bed I told him I would see him next year, and he told me he would see me when he was six. I think he was a little confused. The New Year started right though when Jacob asked me to come and play Eye of the Tiger with him on Guitar Hero!

Funny and Unrelated Things

2008-12-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

First off, today is Sunday and after Jacob got home from church, I asked him to clean up his room. He threw himself on the couch and said, "awww, today is the day of rest! and I need a rest!" It was pretty funny.
Next random thought, Sharon still has something up her nose. Jay took her to the doctor on Christmas Eve, and the doctor had him "blow her nose" which meant he had to put his mouth on hers, plug her clear nostril, and then blow. He said he almost threw up at what came out and hit his lips. Not good, but what a great dad! So, he did it again yesterday, and he shot something out of her nose, and I think he got whatever was crammed up there. It shot out of her nose and hit his lips again and then landed on her chin. I wiped up her chin while Jay was gagging and trying to not throw up, and it was disgusting. I do think she is better today though, so that was worth it!
Third funny thing is about Guitar Hero. Jay got the game from my parents for Christmas and we have been having a blast! The kids' favorite song is "Eye of the Tiger." We have played that song so many times I am getting really sick of it. Jay loves it that they love this crazy song, and even Jacob can sing all the words now. It is pretty funny to hear Jacob up in his room singing "rising up to the challenge of our rival." Jay recorded Rocky 3 that was on TV last night in the middle of the night and the boys are dying to watch it. I think Jacob meant watch Rocky 3 instead of rest for a Sunday activity!
Anyway, we had a great Christmas, the kids have had soo much fun with Jay home. It has been really nice.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

It seems like it has been a very short Christmas season this year, but we have been having a lot of fun. Topher and Anna have been introducing Jacob to all kinds of versions of "Jingle Bells," so he sings all these versus about stitches in your head, and a one year open sleigh-it is pretty funny. He has strep throat now, so he hasn't been doing much singing. We have had a ton of snow this week, so every day the kids and Jay have gotten up to shovel the driveway-we always seem to have a snowblower when there is no snow, and nothing when we have a lot. It has been really pretty and definitley felt quite "Christmasy."
One of my favorite things about Christmas is the song by Band Aid, Feed the World. It doesn't really feel like Christmas until I have heard that song on the radio. So far this year, I haven't heard the song-have I mentioned how much XM/Sirius radio sucks? I have heard about 100 songs by the Carpenters, but no Band Aid. I still remember when I first heard the song. I was in 6th grade, and we had a whole school assembly. The seniors played this song and I thought it was the coolest thing ever-it helped that the girl who played it had a dad who was the drummer from Oingo Boingo, so obviously whatever she said was instantly cool! All us girls at my great school-whose idea was it to send me to an all girl middle school?-loved the song and it was really fun. So, whenever I hear the song, I just remember that great assembly and how much fun it was. I am going to have to break down and just play it tomorrow, but it somehow seems more magical when it actually comes on the radio-oh well, I will just have to create my own magic!
Hope everyone has a Christmas filled with whatever makes them feel magical!

Round 2

2008-12-08T14:21:00.000-08:00

OK, so this might sound like something I wrote a while ago, but Sharon stuck something else up her nose again. My kids have been sick since we got home from Thanksgiving. I have had at least one kid home from school every day last week, and yesterday none of them went to church-could this have to do with the fact that all the Christmas decorations were out, but none were on the tree yet? Jesus will be the only one with enough wisdom to sort that one out. Anyway, they have all been throwing up and saying their stomachs hurt. Sharon has had a foul odor about her for the past few days. She'll be really stinky and I'll think, "I bet that crazy baby put something up her nose again," but then both her nostrils would run and I would assume that she would only have one nostril plugged, so she must just have a little cold. As she continued to get stinkier and stinkier, I thought she had strep. I started to get really concerned when I put her to bed at 6:30 on Saturday, and she woke up after 4 PM on Sunday, and she didn't even know about the Christmas tree! At that point, I decided to call first thing this morning. So, she has stuff crammed up both nostrils this time, and it was once again, disgusting. They couldn't tell if it was a dryer sheet or gauze. I am wondering if it is from the pillows that Costco recalled because all the stuffing comes out? They are really soft and she really likes it, but I might have to return it! I'll go check it out and see if the stuffing is loose when she wakes up. So after the doctor, we went to Target and Sharon has decided that she doesn't want to sit in the cart anymore. We have to nip this idea in the bud, or else a great deal of pleasure will be removed from my life. Anyway, we were getting pretzels and Diet Coke, and she was screaming her head off. Since her little procedure, her nose was starting to bleed. The Target worker was like, "Eww, gross, what is wrong with your baby!" and I was just trying to get my Coke and get going. It was also super helpful that it was handicapped field trip day at Target and they were all fascinated by the baby with the bloody nose. I love being a spectacle!
So, the other thing that might sound familiar was that my basketball team got killed by the Amazon ladies team again, but no, we just played them again and shockingly enough, we had the same result-we lost. We had the worst refs who called no fouls, and these stupid ladies were the worst sports. It was getting pretty ugly, but let me tell you about my favorite play of the game. I had the ball and I shot, I was fouled, but they didn't make a call. I missed the shot and got the rebound, I was fouled, but no call. I was dribbling in the key-smart move it know, got fouled, and they stole the ball. I was pretty worked up at this point, and decided that if they weren't going to make a call, I would take matters into my own hands. I didn't even know who stole the ball, but I decided to throw them to the ground. I reached out and grabbed their jersey and pulled them back so they would go to the ground. Well, I didn't grab their shirt, I grabbed their shorts, and I pulled the girl's shorts off to her knees! This all happened right in front of our bench, so everyone was laughing. (Except the girl whose pants came off!) Someone on my team immediately apologized and said I was just trying to stop from falling, and then someone else said, "no, did you see her face, she was really mad!" Anyway, I actually got called for the foul and it was hilarious. After the game I apologized, and she huffed into me with her shoulder and wouldn't give me a high five-some people are such poor sports!

Very Random Thoughts

2008-12-03T13:19:00.001-08:00

So, as my kids are sick of turkey and I am sick of cooking, I decided to make a good ol' tuna casserole last night. I don't know what I am doing wrong as a mother here, but my kids were repulsed by it! I was horrified, but I ate quite a bit to make up for it. I think my kids might be secret communists, and I don't know what I am going to do with them!
Sharon and I were at Target and I stopped the car, but realized I was parked at a 45 degree angle and over the yellow line-stupid gas-guzzling Escalade-see I told you we all might be communists, so I restarted the car to straighten it out. Sharon thought we were leaving, and burst into tears because she didn't even get to go into our own little heaven on earth, known as Target. See, then I felt like I was a good mom because of all the good values I am teaching my 2 year old!
So, the kids have all been sick since we got back from our Thanksgiving in Utah-we had a great time by the way, it was great to see all the Calders and some of my family too-this might be why the tuna casserole met with such objections, but who knows! I was driving along in the aforementioned Escalade by myself and happily guzzling gas, and I was scrolling through the radio stations. I don't know about you, but I am sickened by the Sirius/XM merger. My favorite station, Flight 26, has been replaced by the stupid Pulse, and I hate it. I used to never have to change the channel, but now I do. So, I was driving along and I was thinking about a text my friend got yesterday about Elder Wirthlin dying. I haven't even had time to confirm, but I was thinking about how happy he must be and how great it would be to be done with this life since I was just kind of overcome with how hard life is and why things had to be so crappy-this has more to do with real problems not my satelite radio, and then I came across George Straight singing, Hark the Herald Angels Sing. I love George Straight, and I love this song. I can't even remember the words, but I was overcome with how much our Savior loves us and that everything was going to work out-I don't know about getting Flight 26 back on the air, but that the real stuff would be OK. I am excited about Christmas and about celebrating Jesus' birth, and in the end, the other stuff will work itself out.
See-I told you this post was random!

Topher's Birthday

2008-11-19T04:33:00.001-08:00

Topher loved his jumper!

I know I always can't believe how fast time flies, but I really can't believe that Topher is 9. It seems like just yesterday that I was lugging that big lug around all day. I guess the saying is right that "time flies when you are having fun," or maybe I will coin a new one, "time flies when you have too many loads of laundry to do, too many spelling tests to give, and too many kids to yell at!" I think I like that one better, probably more appropriate to the last 9 years of my life anyway. Just kidding, I love my kids, but since yesterday I told Topher and Anna they were in prison camp for being so lazy and lying about when their work is done, maybe right now isn't the best time to write about how much I love Topher, but really I do. He has always been so sweet and such a much needed calming influence in our lives. After I was finished ranting about how they had no privileges and couldn't be trusted to even clean under the train table-the nerve! I asked Topher how his day was. He started to cry and said that it was now horrible because he couldn't watch TV. He almost had me until he mentioned TV, then I just laughed. Topher's birthday was last Sunday, the ninth and then on Monday he asked me what I was bringing. I had no idea what code he was speaking in or about, and then he almost cried again and said for his birthday, of course! Well, his birthday was already well off my list, but I did whip up a batch of cupcakes and grabbed some pretzels since the school has gone nazi over unhealthy snacks, and Sharon and I went in to the classroom. They were watching "Balto," which I have never seen, but Topher kept talking about it like it was some kind of a documentary, isn't it about a dog? Anyway, Sharon screamed because she wanted to sit in some girl's desk, and it wasn't pretty. He had fun showing her off and eating his cupcakes, it was cute to be in his classroom.
This post is really pretty random, I can't sleep, but maybe I shouldn't be writing things for posterity either. Let me get back to how great Topher is. Topher is really smart, and he just started the gifted and talented program for the district. The program is different than when I was a kid, they take all the kids from each grade and they go do stuff for about half a day once a week. He really likes it and is quite proud of himself for qualifying. He took an IQ test and had to pass above a certain mark, so he was thrilled with himself and wants to tell everyone his IQ. I tried to explain that it is a private thing, like how much your house costs, and he was not getting the picture since he ran up to our neighbor the second he got home and told him how high his IQ is.
Topher is also a good little athlete. He thinks he is going to win the Heisman some day which is great. He was really lazy in his basketball game the day before his birthday, so I told him if he got 10 rebounds and made two shots I would buy him a candy bar-what a great reward for sports performance, but whatever. Anyway, he did great this past week and really hustled and worked hard. It is really fun to watch him play.
Well, that is about all for now. Topher had a fun birthday, we love him a lot, and look forward to another great year!This cake took forever to make and didn't even look that good, which is a bad combo! He liked it though, so that is what is important. He had the most fun putting all the action figures around for a battle scene.

More Basketball

2008-11-10T12:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday was another day of basketball games. This time the boys conflicted, so I went to Topher's, and Jay went to Jacob's. Topher's team lost by two baskets, but he did a good job. He had to play 3 quarters so he was really tired. Jacob kind of reverted to his deer in the headlights look at his game. Maybe next week he'll get fired up-who knows? It is cute to see them play and to see how much they improve.

Humble Pie

2008-11-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I started something new, a women's city league basketball team. It is with a bunch of ladies that all play at the church 3 times a week.
So, I guess you could say I am a bit cocky about playing basketball at the church with the ladies since I can pretty much do whatever I want when we play-see I told you I was cocky! I can shoot, pass, dribble, whatever, and it pretty much works for me. Well, we started our season last night and I got handed a big fat piece of humble pie! When I walked in the gym, I almost messed my pants when I saw who we were playing. They were Amazon women! They had 4 girls well over 6 feet tall and well over 200 pounds-some may have been pushing 250, I was so overwhelmed I could hardly look at them! You can see a couple of them in the background of the picture-they are huge! Then, somebody told me that their guard started at BSU last year and was WAC conference player of the year-a little out of our league to say the least-but since we were in the same league, our little team was in trouble! Needless to say, I was not able to do whatever I wanted with the ball last night! When I dribbled in front of the best basketball player I've ever faced, she was practically making a lay-up before I even realized she had stolen the ball! It wasn't good. I worked so hard fighting my way across the key to get posted up, and then these "women" would shove me about 5 feet out of the way, and I am not easily shoved, so they were big I tell you BIG! We stayed tied until 12 points which I consider a huge moral victory, and then it all fell apart. Final score, 55-22. I did make a basket, and I had some good defensive stops. The refs called absolutley nothing, so I was hacking away like crazy! It wasn't good though because the big ladies were throwing elbows like crazy when they got a rebound, I thought one of them was going to break my jaw at one point. We had a lot of fun, and we just laughed at how bad we are, but it was really fun to go play this morning and to be able to sail in for an easy lay-up (I guess I didn't eat quite enough of that pie!)

Basketball Season Begins

2008-11-05T13:24:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, we started basketball season for the boys. Jacob's game was first and I was really worried about him because all he did in all of his practices was act clueless-I suppose it wasn't an act, he really was clueless! So, we had a little pep talk on the way to the game, and Jacob came out like an animal! He was so aggressive on defense, it was great. He just walked up to people and ripped the ball out of their arms. He kept getting called for fouls because in Y-Ball you can only guard your designated guy, but he was all over the place. He was cracking me up! He loves having a uniform and he is really excited for his next game.
Topher's team is really good. The pictures weren't very good, but you can get the idea. I was really proud of the crossover dribble he did, he has improved so much. He actually posts up now, and he blocks out guys so that his teammates can drive to the basket and get an open lay up, he's doing great. It was a fun way to spend a Saturday watching our boys have so much fun playing basketball!

Halloween

2008-11-05T12:38:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween this year. It was soo warm, it was fabulous, except that both Topher and Anna said it was too hot to wear their wigs, but they still looked great. We had a get-together at my parent's house to eat the goodies the kids baked with my mom that day, and then we got ready and went trick-or-treating. We did our street together, and Jay had to carry Sharon the whole time because she was terrified of Anna and could never figure out who she was. After that, we went down to a big haunted house in our neighborhood, and then I let the "big kids" trick-or- treat alone. They thought they were really big time and they all did well together. They went through the haunted house again and had a great time.In case you can't tell, Anna is Elpheba, from Wicked. My mom made a great costume and Anna looked great. On Wednesday before Halloween, Anna and I were out getting supplies for a book report and we saw at Barnes and Noble that they had a darling book tote with a Wicked design on it, well, of course they were sold out. My dad was in New York flying back the next day, so I called my mom to see when his flight was. She told me it was at 8 AM, and I figured that was that since it was after 10 at night in NY at this point. Well, my mom called my dad, he found a Barnes and Noble that was open and had the bag. Don't you just love NY?! He jumped in a taxi and bought the bag. She was really happy to have her tote to go out that next night! Topher is a sumo wrestler, and when I brought the costume home without him picking it out since everything he wanted to be was sold out, he almost started to cry. He tried it on though and loved it. We thought he looked hilarious. The funniest was that he walked like a fat person swinging his legs out wide so that his "thighs" wouldn't rub-he looked great.
Jacob was "Super Why" from PBS. He really likes to read, and Super Why has "the power to read," so Jacob loved it. His costume was sold out, so my mom had to make his too, but his wasn't as big of a deal since he has on Hulk pajamas backwards and women's underwear. He looked cute though and really liked it. Sharon pretty much hates Halloween. She is scared of everything and she wouldn't wear her hat, oh well, maybe next year.I put a picture of Jay in so you could see him "post-shave." You can see the scar pretty good in real life, but he thinks it makes him look tough-whatever! We had a really fun Halloween!

Flag Football

2008-10-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

Topher had his next to last game this past weekend and his team has improved a ton. His team has done a great job of having everyone play and get a chance to do something with the ball. We could have won on Saturday, but we didn't exactly have the best players in at the end-even the kid who was the running back's dad who kept dropping the ball said to yank his kid, but we let him do his thing and we lost. It really wasn't a big deal to the kids because they didn't realize that a touchdown they thought they scored was called back because the boy stepped out of bounds. We'll just go ahead and let them think they won. When we were driving around, we saw the other team, so of course we scoped them out, and they had the world's biggest kid on their team. He probably weighed about 130 and was over 5 feet. He was huge! I told Topher I knew who he would be blocking and to get ready! I still can't believe that kid was in the third grade, he must've failed several grades.
Anyway, during the game, Topher was on defense, and he was trying to get past Godzilla, and I had to offer one of my famous sideline tips. I yelled at him to "swim" past the guy. He did, and he blew right past him and got the quarterback for a 10 yard loss. He was so proud of himself, as was the coaching staff on the sidelines. I know soon that my comments will be met with much eye rolling and disgust, but it was nice to know that good old mom actually knows something. For those who don't know, "swimming" is pretty much what it sounds like. You basically put your elbow in the other players armpit and slide under him-it works really well in many sports, so feel free to pass along this tip from the sideline.
It was so cold at the game thought I thought I was going to die! There was snow on the mountains and the wind was whipping right along. I was glad the kids were at home! Only one more game left and then we get to go sit in a gym!This picture cracks me up because Topher "switched" the person he was blocking-he was able to push this kid back just a bit farther!

Apple Picking

2008-10-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

Last week, we got an email inviting us over to someone's house to come pick apples, so that was our activity for family night. It was close and free, so that was a winning combo for me! The kids love picking apples and it was a gorgeous night. There were some cows in the field and I think they got a lot of apples from us. Jacob liked to try to peg the cows from the tree. It was a fun night, but we picked way too many apples! I have been making every crazy recipe I can find trying to use up apples, and I give them to anyone who comes over. I think Sharon's speech therapist was quite happy with her haul of apples. Anyway, it was a fun time.I don't know whose tongue is sticking out more!

He was so proud of himself, he tired about 50 times to feed the cow.

Sharon's reaction to the cows, and Topher finally feeding oneUp in the tree

Craters of the Moon

2008-10-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

Our day at Craters of the Moon National Park

Entering the cave...They made it out!
Our group!

This was inside the tunnel.
Can you see Baby Sharon and I way down? Anna took the camera!Jacob really loved this rock!

Topher was taking a break.

I had to put this picture in because Anna looks so "Calder" in it. She is such a cute little girl!

Last week we had a couple of days off of school, so on the first day when at nine o'clock everyone was already on timeout, I knew we had to do something. Jay was supposed to be able to take the day off on Friday, but it turned out he couldn't. So, I decided I would take the kids to Craters of the Moon National Park. We drove by this summer and it looked amazing, so I really wanted to go. It is three hours from our house, so I knew it was going to be a long day. Jay stayed home in the morning and helped us get off which was much appreciated. We made it there no problem, it is in the middle of no where so we packed lots of food, which somehow managed to be smashed all over the car, but that phenomena is for a much longer blog about my poor filthy car! When I got the baby out to change her diaper, she was soaking. Topher thought it would be a good idea to hand her a full bottle of water and let her dump it all over herself. It was about 60 degrees, so I wasn't super happy with him. Oh well, it was really windy and she dried pretty fast. We hiked all over the place and had a great time. There were a couple of paths that were paved and we could take the stroller. We went on this one path that was straight up a volcano, and the baby wanted to walk, and the other kids were racing up the mountain. It was really windy and it was on small lava pebbles that were kind of tricky, so I had to carry Sharon. I couldn't even see the kids, and there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it, except hope they eventually turned around and came back to the car-which they did. The kids were the most excited about going in the caves. We bought flashlights and they were really excited to go in the caves. Well, I had Sharon in the backpack, and we walked to the caves, and there was no way I could go in. So, I told Topher to watch Jacob and they set off. Everyone there was looking at me like I was crazy, but you have to have a little faith right? I couldn't sit down or else Sharon would try to fling herself out of the backpack, so I had to stand each time they went in a cave while being nervous about what was happening with Jacob. I could hear him ask Topher where to put his foot, and Topher so kindly replying to "hurry up, Jacob!" Topher brought Jacob out pretty quickly and that was fine. On the next cave, Anna was in charge of Jacob and things went much better. Apparently, they saw ice and used their flashlights and had a great time. We all went in a tunnel and it was pretty hard. I had to go down backwards with Sharon quite a bit because the steps were so big and steep. Jacob was very helpful and kept picking up Sharon's flashlight that she thought was hilarious to throw. I don't think any of our 6 new flashlights made it home in working order. By the time I got back to the car, I was really missing Jay! Sharon fell asleep in the backpack, but when I had to swing her around, she woke up and that was her nap. Everyone else was starving and thirsty and needed lots of help-including me! We made it back on the road and I was so tired, but we really had a great day and I hope the kids remember our trip to Craters, I know I sure will!

Primary Program

2008-10-02T13:02:00.000-07:00

We had our Primary Program this past Sunday, and I took some pictures because the kids looked so cute. Anna had a solo part in I Love to See the Temple and did a really nice job. Jacob did a great job on his speaking part and Topher did too. I love the Primary program, it is probably one of my favorite Sacrament meetings. The kids were all so cute and really had some nice things to say. Our only problem was that Sharon kept seeing the kids and wanting in on the action, so that was a pain. This was especially bad since Jacob was sitting where the speakers usually sit so he was quite visible. I thought sitting with just her for Sacrament was going to be a breeze, but she was not really complying. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she had something stuck up her nose that was starting to really bug her, who knows?

New One

2008-10-01T16:28:00.000-07:00

Well, after 4 babies, I thought I had seen it all, but today I got a new one! Sharon's nose has been running since Sunday, and starting on Monday her breath was really bad. Yesterday when I went in to get her after her nap, I thought she had pooped, but it was just her stinky breath. I gave her three baths yesterday thinking I kept missing poop, and then I would wipe her nose and I thought I had poop all over my hands. I can't express how gross and stinky she was! Anyway, when she woke up again today just literally rancid, I called the pediatrician. When I told him what was going on, he told me it sounded like she had something up her nose-and only one nostril was running, which is also symptomatic. So, after they wrapped her up in a towel and used some spreader thing, they dug out the grossest thing ever out of her nose. The doctor just chucked it because we were all gagging. The poor nurse holding her shoulders as she was screaming and wailing was gagging at the smell. They immediately took the trash out. So, Baby Sharon is doing better, but is on antibiotics since having her nasal passage blocked for days on end kind of leads to a sinus infection, but at least she is feeling better, and I can go into her room and hold her and not want to puke!

Jacob

2008-09-29T12:39:00.001-07:00

Jacob-just born all 9 lbs. 15 oz. of him-he was a chunk! Especially for a week early!First Father's DayHelping us build something for our new house in Idaho
Two cute boys!
Something obviously didn't go Jacob's way!
Hanging out at the pumpkin patch
The horses at Thanksgiving Point
First Birthday
All dressed up for Thanksgiving Dinner!Disneyland!
Natural History Museum.

Hanging out at Surf Camp
Asking to go to Hawaii-who could say no to this cute guy, but he didn't get to go and we all had a much better time sorry to say!
EasterTurning 5!

I was going to write a little blog entry about Jacob since it was his birthday, but that came and went, and then I was going to do it a month later, but that came and went too, so, for no particular reason, I am going to write about Jacob. Jacob is really smart and really caring. He knows a lot of things about a lot of people. He knows everybody's birthdays and gets really excited for them. He also really likes his birthday and has already begun planning next year's festivities. He got angry at me and told me I can't make his cake-aw shucks, so his dad is going to make it. I don't think that will happen, and I don't think Jacob really wants it, but Jacob loves his daddy. He thinks his dad is really cool, smart, strong, you name it if it is positive, Jacob thinks Jay is it! He shares his dad's love of Indiana Jones, and was sad that Jay didn't have a shirt to match with his and Topher's.
Jacob is a good reader. I can't believe the things that kid reads. He has just started really enjoying coloring and he makes really cute pictures and drawings. He made me a certificate for snuggles that he brings in when I need some snuggles.
Jacob and I share the same taste in music. I was singing a song by my new favorite artist, Matt Nathanson called "Come on Get Higher" to myself as I was making dinner, and he just joined right in and told me his favorite part was "drowning in love." So, while those lyrics are OK, his true favorite song is "Rockstar" by Nickelback, and those lyrics are probably not super appropriate for a 5 year old to be singing, but when he sings about getting a key to the Playboy mansion, it cracks me up. He also loves the Jonas Brothers and when I turn the channel he gets a bit upset. It is fun to ride around in the car with Jacob and listen to songs with him.
Jacob loves the Book of Mormon. He likes to read it to the speech therapist, and he really likes to read from the book of Jacob. He thinks that is pretty cool to have his own book. He might want to do scriptures on his own time and in his own way, but he does enjoy them-which kind of makes up for all the music he listens to that he probably shouldn't.
Jacob says funny things all the time. Just today we were walking upstairs to get dressed and he asked me what "sweet" meant. I told him it meant it had a lot of sugar, and he replied that I was wrong, "sweet means it tastes really good." No argument from me! Yesterday coming home from church he randomly said, "I love your dad, Dad because he wears glasses. I really like Grandpa Jim's glasses." Pretty funny little guy.
I think Jacob is just about the cutest little guy in the world. I love his hair, and his bright blue eyes. He got a really bad haircut when my dad took him last week, so now it is really short and he basically looks bald when it is combed, but he still looks cute. He got to pick out a pair of Skechers for school-you are not allowed to call them shoes, they are Skechers and he loves them. The poor kid I think this might be the first pair of shoes purchased just for him. He is a good sport about hand-me-downs, but he was really excited about his shoes.
I went in to help at kindergarten last week, and he just lit up when I walked in the room. I wish I could have bottled up that expression and pull it out whenever I am frustrated with him. He told everyone "that's my mom" and he was so happy to see me. It was a great feeling and pretty great that you can make someone's day like that just by walking in the room!
Jacob also really loves Baby Sharon and has a lot of fun with her. He loves to give her hugs and kisses and cracks up when we find her naked most times after she has been asleep.
Anyway, Jacob gets a bad rap for being naughty and he is pretty selective on who and when he will speak, but he really is a great kid. We have a lot of fun together!
Sorry for all the pictures, but it was fun for me to look at how much he has changed and grown over the years!

Teen Angst

2008-09-15T17:59:00.000-07:00

When I was a teenager, I thought that everything I did was pretty hilarious. I loved to be obnoxious and to make people uncomfortable-that was a real favorite. I also loved to vandalize things and envision how mad someone would be when they found their mailbox covered in eggs and peanut butter-I delighted in these kinds of thoughts, and who wouldn't when you care about no one but yourself, it is great fun to disrupt other people's lives. Who can resist walking up to someone and screaming at the top of your lungs in their ear just to see them jump-it is really great fun. I totally cringe at some of the thing my friends and I did in high school. We always asked old people where the gay bar was just to see their reactions, or we would ask people if they got their HIV test results back in front of their moms to get them in trouble, or we would do it in front of complete strangers just to see their look of disgust as they glared at the unsuspecting person. My poor cousin from Salt Lake had probably the most miserable day at Disneyland with my friends and I as we would pinch people's butts and then they would look at her because of course we would be looking away being the cool kids from California that we were.
Anyway, pardon my ramblings, but you to realize how much I have grown up, you have to see where I started. So, sometime in the early 90's I stopped doing these things. It might have had something to do with almost getting kicked out of the dorms, or possibly the next year almost getting kicked out of BYU for honor code violations-who can pinpoint an exact moment, but it did happen, and now I am a responsible mom of 4. So, this is why what happened last Friday is all the more hilarious, and I might have opened a can of worms that cannot be closed. We play basketball three times a week and one of the girls hasn't been coming lately, but she always tells us she will come and then she doesn't show-what a flake! So, on Friday after we played and she didn't show up, we decided to TP her house-how can TP all over your front yard not make you want to come hang out with those same people who made the mess? We got some supplies, loaded up in my minivan-I think it is a prerequisite to take a minivan when you TP, and hit the road. Oh my gosh, when I had those rolls of toilet paper in my hands, it all came back to me. I was throwing high in the trees, getting full rolls in the gutters-I was at the top of my game, and I felt great. What a great time we had, a van full of crazy ladies in broad daylight throwing toilet paper, it was a fabulous morning. Then, I had to reign in all the craziness as I got back in the car and Jacob asked me what I was doing, and the baby was totally crying. The poor teenager in me really wanted to come out, but the ladies and I calmly drove away in the minivan, got our diet cokes and went our separate ways. I knew it wouldn't last.

Stroller Love

2008-09-13T13:55:00.001-07:00

Since Sharon pooped in the toilet, I got her a new toy stroller. Jay said she loves the one at nursery, so I thought it would be a hit. It is! She loves that thing sooo much, you have to pry it out of her hands to put her down or to get in the car. She wanted to bring it up on my bed to sit down and play with me up there. She loves to push it. She got outside with it once, and took off down the street. I had to grab the stroller and drag her backwards. She laid down in the road, screaming her head off of course, and was pulling as hard as she could against me. Since I have a good 100 pounds on her-ha ha-it wasn't much of a pulling contest and then she really started screaming. It made me soo glad I bought her that stroller. She brought it with her to the church to lay basketball yesterday and was very helpfully pushing it in the middle of the game. She really wanted to be a part of the action and had an uncanny knack for being in the way 90% of the time. Anyway, she really does love it, and when a ten dollar toy brings so much happiness, I am more than happy to oblige.

Yippeeee!

2008-09-10T09:39:00.001-07:00

A couple of days ago we got a little potty seat for Sharon. She was scared to sit on the toilet and I had been reluctant to buy one of those gross potty seats where you have to dump it out and clean it, but I suppose it is better than having it smashed all over them, so we bought the dumb thing. Sharon loves it. She wants to be naked and sitting on it all the time. She even had her speech therapy session in the nude-a first for the therapist. She did say a lot of words trying to get her clothes off and trying to get on the potty seat, so that was good. Anyway, today she was walking around in the nude, and I heard her upstairs, so I took her downstairs and threw her on her seat, and she did her business in her little toilet! I was pretty excited. I don't think she knew what all the hullaballu was about, but I was thrilled! She can't talk, but she can poop in the toilet. It was totally gross dumping out the toilet, but once again, better than scraping it off her! All in all, a great day! I can't wait to be finished with diapers!

Ode

2008-09-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

The cheap and brightly

colored ugly
plastic staple
of our backyard-

Has served our
family well.
Ten years of love
but not care, ends.

The car breaks.
Sharon cries.

The trash comes.
The car goes.

We loved our Little Tykes car. I suppose it wasn't designed for 10 year olds to go four wheeling in the backyard. Oh well, we definitely got our money's worth on this one!

The Start of Football Season

2008-09-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Fall is a great time. I love the coolness in the air and the fact that the kids are back in school. Jay's favorite part is the fact that football is back on. Topher is loving playing football again this year. Football season means that all we do on Saturday is watch football. We go to Topher's game and then we watch the USC game and BYU games. Some people in my family think this is a great way to spend a Saturday. It is pretty fun for all of us and it is great to see Topher involved. We were watching the first SC game, and Topher saw Pete Carrol, the head coach, and he said, "Hey, I know that guy, I talked to him!" Then, as he was trying to explain to Jacob how cool this was, he told him, "Jacob, that is like you seeing SpongeBob on TV." So, Topher obviously likes Pete Carrol a lot per his analogy. Anyway, we got a kick out of that. Topher's own football has not been off to quite the glorious start that the Trojans and Cougars have. Their team only made 2 first downs the whole game. Topher got one of them. His team is tiny, so he has to be on the Offensive and Defensive lines. He likes to get in there and shove, so it is a good place for him. It is fun to watch even though his team is far from stellar. It will be cool to see the progress. We love Fall!

Silver City

2008-09-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

Anna told me I am not allowed to write about Silver City since she wanted exclusive rights for her blog, but I am going to violate those rights since I want a more complete record. I decided to go to Silver City as a little day trip for our last Saturday of summer and before football started. It is 66 miles away and I thought no big deal. Little did I realize that 20 of those miles were on pretty treacherous dirt road. It was definitely exciting! Then, when we got into town, a "sherriff" stopped us and told us we ran a traffic light. It was a lantern tied across the street. After the guy talked to us for about 5 minutes he finally admitted it was a joke and they were just looking for donations to pay for the person they pay to stay in the town over the winter-hasn't anybody seen The Shining? People isolated for the winter is not a good idea. Anyway, the town was really cool and had a bunch of old structures. We ate lunch at the hotel and looked around for an open silver mine. Apparently they had all been closed last year, so the kids were a bit disappointed, but I thought it was really fun. It was a nice day trip and a great end to the summer.It really was beautiful and worth the somewhat scary drive.What a park! I could hardly tear the kids awayI thought this picture was pretty funny-I did not make an appoinment!

Riding the Bus

2008-08-29T12:44:00.000-07:00

We have had many problems with Jacob and transportation so far this first week of kindergarten. After school the first day, I went to parent pick up and asked where was Jacob and they had no idea. So, I saw him out of the corner of my eye getting on the bus. He was getting on the bus that would have gone to our bus stop by our house, but he wasn't supposed to get on the bus-the reason I was at school to pick him up! Anyway, we got him out of line and then his teacher called to apologize. That situation is now resolved and Jacob is there waiting when I come to pick him up. Then trying to get him to school on the bus has been another story. After the bus driver drove past us for two days, I finally went down to school to figure out what was going on with the route. We finally got the situation resolved and he was able to ride the bus yesterday for the first time. We walked there and Sharon wanted to wear a back pack too, so fortunately I hadn't thrown away Anna's old one yet, so she wore that one. Then when he got on the bus, she thought she was going too, and that is when her world came crashing down. She wasn't happy to say the least. Oh well, it's only 4 more years until she gets to go on the bus, I am sure she won't mind waiting!
Jacob practiced his "strong guy" pose as we waited for the bus At the "bus stop"Yay! we made the bus and the lady stopped for us!Happy times
A little frustrated to be left at home!

Announcing...

2008-08-28T16:11:00.001-07:00

Anna has decided after watching me blog that she wants one of her own. Check it out

allaboutanna131.blogspot.com

Summer Recap 2

2008-08-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

I just downloaded my picture card and I found a bunch of fun pictures from the summer. We went to Joshua Tree National Park when we were in California and it was really cool. The kids had so much fun climbing on all the rocks. It was a beautiful day and there was nobody there. I wish that Jay had been there because he would have loved it. It was such a cool place and I was jealous of the people camping there and doing some real rock climbing and repelling, but then when I was sleeping in a comfortable bed, that feeling pretty much went away. Here are some pictures of a couple different Children's Museums we went to. The kids love going and the one here in Boise is basically beyond pathetic, so it is really fun to go to ones when we are gone. We saw the Body World exhibit again, and the kids really liked it, but Jacob kept saying how "creepy" everything was. It was fun to go with them, and we had a great time.Also, some pictures from our time in Utah. I didn't take my camera to the top of the Y, but we had a fun time jumping on the tramps and being together.
I also have a few pictures from Rexburg. This is from the drive there, it was a huge gorge!Anna and I were a little scared on the bridge!
This is on our way back, looking at Craters of the Moon National Park, Anna was in too much discomfort to stop, maybe next time...This is James and Anna after the ticket machine shot out about 300 tickets at the game center. They were soo excited!Here is Topher with his little cousin, Beck, I don't think either one of them was too excited about this picture!
We had a great time, and our drives were good too. It sure helps when you only have 2 big kids with you, things can actually be fun and easy! Anyway, just a few more summer highlights.

First Day of School

2008-08-25T12:38:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day, the first day back to school! I am going to miss them, but when I closed the door after dropping off Topher and Anna today, what a relief! They are ready to go back and so am I. They did such a good job getting ready today. We practiced, did scriptures, and we were early to school. Let's see how we hold up!
Jacob had his first day of kindergarten today that I was a little bit sadder about. He just looked so little lining up to go into his classroom. I am a bit worried about how he will do since he got kicked out of church again yesterday. The teacher asked the kids about their favorite scripture story and he started screaming that he wanted to talk about Bionicles and that she was making him angry talking about the scriptures. So, he had to go outside and then he was fine. Hopefully his teacher won't make him talk about anything he doesn't want to today! He knows a bunch of kids in the class and he will do just great. So, it's just Baby Sharon and I here in the afternoons, so maybe I'll be able to keep my house cleaner without children starting waterballoon fights upstairs the day after the carpets were cleaned-not a happy thing, and kids in and out all day. It does feel really quiet right now, and I am enjoying every second of it!

Hot, Hot, Hot

2008-08-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

Monday was "Family Day" at the Western Idaho State Fair, which means there was no smoking or drinking, so that is where we went for Jacob's birthday party. I forgot my camera in the car, but by the time I walked to the gate I was so glad I didn't have it because it was so hot. I stood in line for the ride that you sit and swing around in a circle high in the air dangling in your little metal chair-anyway, by the time I stood in the heat listening to nasty Mexican rap songs, fortunately nobody else in our group understood the words, and spun around about 50 times in the air, I felt really sick and old! I am way past my prime fair age! Oh well, I stayed off the rides and out of the sun for the rest of the time there. So, Jacob and his friend went on a pretty scary ride-Topher and his friend went too, but the little boys came off and were ready to go on the next one, but Topher was literally gray. His lips were completely colorless. So, Topher had a rest, and then he went on a ride with my dad. It was kind of like the Viking Ship ride, but it was a circular track that went all the way upside down and would stop and dangle you hanging upside down. Every time around my dad got redder, and Topher got paler. So, the ride had just come to a stop, and Topher started puking. He was still in the harness and facing some other kid, and he just threw up a ton. He said he felt a lot better after. It was pretty funny to see it from a sideways perspective. Not good. After that we stuck to pretty tame rides. Jacob's favorite was the Giant Slide. He loved to race down the slide with his little friend. It was really cute to see him racing down on his potato sack. His little face was so red and was so sweaty, but he had a great time. When we got in the car it was 107 degrees, so it was no wonder we were hot! Nevertheless, we had a great day at the fair!

Summer Recap

2008-08-17T08:07:00.000-07:00

Our summer has been a really good one. We left the day school got out and went down to LA. We stayed there for about a month helping my parents move out of their house. It was a lot of work, but they got out. It was pretty sad to leave that house the last day, but after all the work I did there, there are some parts of me that never wanted to see that place again! It is weird to think that someone else lives in that house now, but they are nice people and I hope they enjoy it!
One of Topher's favorite things he did was to attend the USC football camp. I don't know who was more excited, Topher, or my dad, but they had a fun day. Topher was next in line to catch a pass from Pete Carroll, and the defensive coordinator told him he did a great job hitting the tackling dummy. It was really a fun camp because all the coaches were there working with the boys and there was a lot of interaction. There were hundreds of little boys there and it was kind of a madhouse. Fun day though.
We had a great trip to Provo and got to see all our Calder cousins. We had a really fun time hiking the Y and spending some time together. The kids had a great time playing and being together.
July at home was nice. We relaxed and spent a lot of time together. The kids did some fishing with Jay which they really liked. So far, nobody has caught anything, but they keep trying! My parents moved in up here so we helped them get settled, which was a much easier job than packing up! We went to Rexburg and saw Christine and her new baby who is so cute and sweet. We had a fun visit and the kids had a great time. Jacob and Sharon stayed home with Grandma which was nice since they were both sick. Jacob had strep so I was glad to not have him spreading germs all over Idaho. We also visited with Jennifer and her cute little guy, Beck, and her husband, Spence. We had a good time with them and it was fun to see their new apartment. Anna got a bladder infection on our drive back home and she wanted to stop in every little town to go to the bathroom. It was a pretty long drive back!
So now we are home and ready to start school next week! I can't believe that summer is over so soon. I am going to miss the kids being home all day. We have had a lot of fun this summer!

Anna's Violin Recital

2008-06-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Anna had her violin recital yesterday and we worked really hard to be ready, and I think the hard work paid off. She did a really nice job and was happy with herself and her efforts. It is nice to see the progress she is making each year. She played Minuet 1 and did a great job.

Jacob's Pre-School Graduation

2008-05-28T09:58:00.001-07:00

Jacob had the best year at pre-school. He had such a great teacher and it was great. I couldn't go to his graduation and Jay took about 200 pictures, so it took me a while to go through all of them, that is why this blog is out of order. Oh well. His teacher was cute and gave them all a CD of pictures she had taken over the year. It is so funny to me that he is off having experiences that I am not a part of, but that's what happens in life, and it is a good thing.
Here he is eating green eggs and ham.

Next up is a picture of them after a day of cooking
I don't know why my font is like this, it is bugging me... another of him doing a volcano..

Now one of him running to get his "diploma"
Posing with his teacher

We love Jacob. He is such a funny boy. We were driving in the car, and he asked me why daddy picked me. And I asked him what did daddy pick me for? He then asked why daddy picked me to be his wife. I told him I didn't know, he would have to ask his dad, but then I told him why I picked his dad. I said, "he's smart, nice" I was then interrupted to be told that he, Jacob, is the smartest person on earth which kind of ended our conversation about picking eternal companions!

Our day at Boondock's

2008-05-25T09:05:00.000-07:00

We had a great day at Boondock's yesterday. Yvonne came up to visit and the kids really wanted to go do something fun, so off we went! Jacob loves mini-golf. He had a legitimate really good hit and then he said, "I am the best mini-golfer on earth!" He then deteriorated to putting the ball on the edge of the cup to hit it in. He had a great time. Anna and Topher loved the bumper boats and the go-karts but I think their favorite part was the lazer tag. They had a great time running around and shooting in the all-new two story course. Baby Sharon went to sleep, so that helped everyone. The lines were kind of long for the go-karts because there were only 4 double cars and all the teenagers wanted to ride together so we had to wait forever. The kids were all wet from the bumper boats, but we still had a great time. You've got to love Boondock's!

Oregon Trail

2008-05-18T17:07:00.001-07:00

Since Jay left for Florida early this morning and Baby Sharon is sick, I made the executive decision to not go to church. Since we had to do something all day and Anna has been on such an Idaho history kick and is also in the middle of an Oregon Trail project, I thought it would be fun to go to the Oregon Trail site. Supposedly you can see original rut marks, the kids thought everything was original, but I don't know, I kind of think horse poop would have gone away by now. Anyway, we were having a great time, and then Jacob kind of slipped through the rungs of a fence and did a flip and got scared and mad. For the rest of the time he was screaming how boring the whole things was and that he wanted to go home. Trudging along with two crying children really made me appreciate the pioneers. They really did an amazing thing. So, we had a fun day out on the Oregon Trail and I was so happy to come home to an air conditioned house and relax!

Happy Un-Birthday!

2008-05-16T12:05:00.001-07:00

Since Jacob has a summer birthday, he celebrated today at preschool. Last night at 10:30 as I was making cupcakes, I wasn't too excited, but he had a fun day. It was all worth it when we were driving and the song came on "Thank you Mommy." I said "oh, I like this song," to which he replied, "I hate it!" It warmed my heart. Since coming home from school he has had about 5 cupcakes, so he appreciates me somewhat. He was cute though as we were driving to school and he told me he was going to get me a robot to fold up clothes for my birthday-if only that were possible! You just have to take the extremes with Jacob-the good and the bad. He does look super cute in this picture and he was very excited to share his cupcakes.

Bobcat Report

2008-05-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

This is Anna's Bobcat Report. They are studying Idaho history this year and Anna has loved it. At first, I didn't know what they were going to study. California we did the missions and all that and there was obviously tons in Massachusetts to study, but Anna has learned a lot about our great state of Idaho. As a side note, when I was looking through her text book, I saw a small paragraph on Brigham Young and the Mormons in the state of Idaho. Then, there were about 4 pages about Jewish people in Idaho. I was horrified. We get two sentences and we settled the majority of the state and the Jews get half a chapter-does that seem right? I think Anna thought I was being nuts when I was telling her how dumb her textbook is, kids think whatever is in a book is true. Anyway, back on topic, she did this report all by herself and we are really proud of her. She got it finished early and did a great job. They have a big Rendezvous for all the 4th graders in the district and that is going on today. She was really excited about getting to mine for gold. Their class bagged 1500 bags of popcorn for their contribution. Hopefully she isn't melting in the heat!

Feliz Cinco de Mayo

2008-05-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

I love Cinco de Mayo. It was always such a fun holiday in LA and we had a lot of fun celebrating it as a family growing up. Then, when I lived in Mexico, it was really fun to have a cinco de mayo down there. That one was more of a military parade and less about going out to eat at a fun restaurant, but it was interesting nonetheless. So, today here in good ol' Idaho, Topher had a presentation called "La Tarde de Espanol." It was really cute. He had been singing all these songs to me and I swear the only word I understood was amigo. He did a great job though and really enjoyed it. Baby Sharon was wandering all over the place and was doing little laps around the teacher who was conducting from the floor in front of the risers. Everyone was laughing and I felt very Mormon at that time, but that's life. Jacob wore his Dash costume for some unknown reason, so we were quite a group. It was a fun afternoon and a fun cinco de mayo.

Bad luck

2008-05-05T10:49:00.000-07:00

Jay had a bad accident on Saturday night at Topher's baseball practice. A coach, who played college baseball, threw in a ball from the outfield and it knicked Jay's glove and hit him in the face. It was totally gross and the little boys were impressed with the amount of blood. As Topher called it, it was like a waterfall. So, 12 stitches later, he felt much better. It was a totally gross wound and he hasn't felt very well since. I stopped getting sympathy for my braces being tightened pretty quickly. I got brackets on the inside of my teeth for rubber bands and my tongue is totally shredded, so I told Jay my tongue is like hamburger, and he replied with, my face is like hamburger!
Anyway, it is nice to have the warmer weather, the kids are enjoying their scooters and bikes. I got this cool thing for practicing hitting and they have really enjoyed it, and I think their hitting has improved too. Anna's softball team lost for the first time last Thursday and it was a crazy game. The other coach came and got in the umpire's face about calls-the umpire who is a parent volunteer, it was pretty ugly. I hated going over to 1st base side to coach because they were talking so much smack about us. We lost by 1 run, so when we play them next time, we'll get them!

Pinewood Derby

2008-04-30T11:06:00.001-07:00

We have passed a major milestone this week-our first Pinewood Derby. While I can't say we were big winners, Jay and Topher had a lot of fun building their car, and Jacob and Anna made ones too that are good. It was kind of chaos since Topher had a game, and I was running the thing. I was out grilling 60 hot dogs and then trying to wrangle the two little ones off to the church. Anna already left to her game which they won extending their undefeated season-we have a big game on Thursday versus the other only undefeated team, it should be a barn burner! So, it was a great night.

Tooth Trouble

2008-04-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

We had dentist's appointments on the only snow day of the year, and since I was thrown off a bit with the kids home all day, I forgot all of our appointments. I finally got them in, and it was a good thing. Topher chipped his front tooth and I couldn't remember if it was the one he already chipped and he just broke off the bonded cap, or if it was the other one, well, it was the other one, so both of his permanent teeth are now capped. Jacob fell out of bed a while ago and knocked his front tooth and it is pretty gray, but the dentist said he didn't need it pulled unless it got infected. That was good news at least. Then, Anna went in and had a huge cavity in a baby tooth that was ready to fall out in a few weeks, so they decided to pull it. Let me say that Anna wasn't a trooper during this event. I was getting my teeth cleaned and I was just dying listening to her scream in the next stall over. The nurse came to ask me how "firm" they could be with her since the nurse asked her if she could feel something and of course Anna yelled out in pain, but the nurse wasn't even touching her. She got a little tricked on that one, so they got out the tooth, but Anna didn't go back to school that day. It had been a long day. My teeth took forever to clean because of my braces, so I was pretty done too. We started at the dentist at 8 AM and then we had to go back at 1 for Anna and I. At least we are done for another 6 months!
Then, to add to our tooth troubles, Baby Sharon was wandering the halls at church and went in a classroom and started to really cry. It just looked to me like she got tripped up on her dress, but then I noticed her front tooth was totally chipped. I think she must have hit a chair and chipped it. I was so sad. My poor children and their tooth issues. I was just glad that Jacob's can stay in for now and I don't have another kid with no tooth for years!

Frostbite and Fitflops

2008-04-23T12:35:00.000-07:00

I got a great Christmas present from my mom last Christmas they are called Fitflops. They are supposed to work your core muscles more when you wear them and they are actually kind of cute too. So, I wore them for the first time last week since it has been so cold here. I was so sore it wasn't even funny. Those things work your glute muscles like crazy! So I was really excited about keeping wearing them until Saturday when I went to coach Anna's game and I thought I was going to die of hypothermia. It was so cold, it even snowed during the game. Snow and softball do not go together in my mind at all, it was not good. So, I went home and took a hot bath but my feet were hurting so much I couldn't make it that hot, but I tried. Then we went to Topher's soccer game and froze all over again. It snowed at his game too. It was not a good Saturday. So, since my feet are still cold I haven't been able to wear my great fit flops and now I am going to have to start all over again getting sore. Yesterday was a warm day and I almost wore them to Topher's baseball game last night, but since it got freezing towards the end and I didn't even have a jacket, I was glad I left my fitflops at home. I slept with the heating pad on high last night right by my feet, and I just took about a half hour shower so I am ready to throw up, but my feet are still cold-I guess my Fitflops will just have to wait, as will my toned glutes!

I hate Slushees!

2008-04-21T15:54:00.001-07:00

Today Jacob and I went to Sonic and I ordered him a slushee. It was happy hour and so drinks were half price. He said he didn't like slushees but I told him he had to try it. So, I passed him his drink, and he started to scream, spit and then threw his slushee on the floor of the car. I picked it up, but he had split the cup open and I had a huge mess on my hands not to mention the fact that he was screaming at the top of his lungs how much he hated slushees and why did I order him something that tastes like garbage. That was about 5 minutes of that, and then he asked me if we could turn our house into a restaurant so that we could live at a restaurant. It was quite a turn of conversation, but that's how it goes...car rides are kind of a crap shoot, they say cute things like wanting to open a restaurant at our house, and then you have slushees thrown all over the place! You've got to love Jacob!

Incidents

2008-04-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

We have had two "incidents' this week, One comical, and one totally annoying and stupid. Jacob is in a playgroup after preschool and after he went to a friend's house this week, she called me and told me there had been an "incident." I was very worried Jacob had done something naughty, so I was waiting for her to tell me something bad...she told me they were outside jumping on the trampoline, I was a bit nervous at this point since he did break his leg on a tramp, and she said she went outside to check on them only to find them jumping with their pants and underwear off. I started to laugh because I was so relieved that he hadn't hurt himself or done anything naughty. The mom was so freaked out that I was going to be mad, but it wasn't a big deal. It was so cold that day I can't imagine anything worse than being outside with no pants on, but I am not 4. Jacob had a great time and saw no problem with the whole "incident."
Our next problem was with Topher's soccer team. His team has been kind of a fiasco from the get-go. His coach flaked, and they have had a parent coach. The other teams they have played have all been playing together for some close to two years, so needless to say, we have gotten killed at every game. The parents coach has been unable to back off and just focus on improving and that the boys are having fun, he yells at them, swears at them-is "move your asses an appropriate thing to yell at 8 year olds?" and rides them so hard nobody has fun and they still lose. So, last Thursday a parent said something. Well, it got ugly pretty fast, and there were some lovely emails sent out and it was so stupid. The coach just looked like the biggest dipwad. He quit, saying oh so sarcastically that he had probably scarred 3 or 4 kids for life so he had better stop, and everyone was relieved. We had a game on Saturday that the assistant coach took over and did a great job. We scored twice-half our goals of the season-it's been a long season, and the boys really had fun. The dumb coach sat in the car to watch the game. The head of the league came to talk to the parents after the game and tried to smooth things over. We are now in a tournament that starts next week that nobody knew about, so the season and saga continues! What a mess.
I think I prefer jumping on a trampoline with no pants on to dealing with a nut case of a coach any day!

Outside

2008-04-14T17:57:00.001-07:00

Baby Sharon has discovered something wonderful the past few warm days we have finally had...outside. She loves to be outside walking around, the closer to the middle of the street she is, the happier she is. When I take her out of her carseat, she starts to squirm and only wants d-o-w-n! It has been fun to see her being outside and playing with all the kids, she just loves it. She got so dirty in the gutter it was pretty gross, but Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when He made skin, it just washes right off! We have had a fun day today.

Spring Fever

2008-04-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

Our first Saturday of baseball and softball season is behind us. Topher had a game at 10 and then Anna had a game at three. I was facing the sun the entire day on our first sunny day so I got fried. I look like I have been skiing a lot which unfortunately is not the case. Topher's game was not so good. They got the mercy rule enacted they were losing so badly. They have all these rules about how many pitches each kid can throw in a
week-40 is the limit and some of our stellar pitchers were reaching their max in less than an inning. Can I just express how long and how bad this inning was-bad scene out there. Topher was so bored he was crying on the way home saying how boring the game was. His team has got to get some better pitching it is just too painful to watch and to have to endure for these little boys!
Anna's game was really fun. We ended up tying 18-18. There was a lot of action. During the game I switched to be third base coach so that we could start sending girls to steal home. The other coach is pretty lax, but I didn't want to offend him or anything, so he was cool with me coaching third. Anyway, that inning we scored 5 runs and that is the max allowed. So next inning the head coach said she wanted to coach third-I guess I wasn't being aggresive enough and I switched to 1st. We were sending the girls like crazy-if they walk they are allowed to steal so that made things more exciting to have them get a double off a walk. It was a fun game. The girls had a lot of fun and we should have a good season. Many more games to come!

What the...?

2008-04-09T10:10:00.001-07:00

How can it be Spring? Today I woke up to two little boys jumping in my bed so excited about the snow! I was surprised to see how much we got. I am ready for some warmer weather. After the excitement of the snow, Jacob went upstairs to play with Anna and since she was getting dressed she slammed the door on him and told him to leave her alone. He burst into tears and came downstairs and told me, "Anna breakded my heart when she told me to leave!" He was very sad. So, later we posed for this picture and it was a struggle. Kids were cold, Jacob was hamming it up, and smiles were a little forced, but they had a good laugh when I told Jacob only the top of his head was going to be in the picture and that got them smiling. (kind of)

A Day in the Life

2008-04-08T18:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such a crazy but typical day, I just thought I would record it.
Up and out of bed reading scriptures at 8:00 (our first time in sooo long it's not even funny). We were at the part in Mosiah where Abinadi teaches the 10 commandments. I had the kids play special attention to the honour thy father and mother part. Anna gave a really sweet prayer saying help up to obey the commandments. Quick breakfast and then time to practice the violin with Anna. It was such hell I can hardly describe it. She was hysterical and screaming at me and running upstairs, it wasn't good. So, then I went upstairs to get Jacob dressed and I look at Topher who is in the same clothes he has been in since Saturday after his soccer game and baseball practice. Yes, he was gross, so he got yelled at to get in the bath and then when I was dressing Jacob I saw him put back on the same dirty clothes, including underwear and I totally lost it with him. How gross! So, he got on some clean clothes, Jacob got dressed, Anna and I talked about being more calm and we talked her prayer how she asked to keep the commandments and she had just broken one, and that she could practice again after school to try to earn her privileges back, and she apologized. So, we were late, but Topher and Anna made it to school on time. In my rush to get out the door, I left the baby's food on the counter as I rushed her to the car and picked up Anna's jacket she left since it was about 30 degrees outside. Poor Baby was screaming she was so hungry so after I took Jacob to school, we went to McDonalds. Then we went to church to play basketball. We had a great group of ladies and although my team lost, I had a good time. I took the baby home and gave her a bath since she was also in the same clothes since Saturday-isn't Conference weekend great? and Jay hadn't even washed the tangerine out of her hair the night before when he put her to bed.
I then went and picked up Jacob from school and then I started to drive to the Scout Office. When Jacob got in the car, I told him the baby had a pancake left over from breakfast that he could eat if he wanted. When he found out she had two and he only got one, he went crazy and screamed for about 10 minutes. Being the fabulous mother that I am, I told him if he stopped crying I would get him something else at McDonalds. So, on my second trip of the day through the Drive Thru, I ordered 3 apple dippers and some fries. The dummies there gave me three apple pies which Jacob then started to scream about saying they were junk and going to make him throw up. I was trying not to eat them they smelled so delicious, and with great difficulty, I was able to refraine. Not a good McDonalds day, and we were too far to turn around by the time I checked the bag. I had to get the cars for the Pinewood Derby that I have no idea what I am doing, but I am pretty good at buying things, so that was fine. While at the Scout Office, Jacob decided it would be a good idea to spit chewed up fries all over the place and in the baby's face. It was great. Those ladies at the Scout office really love me-totally clueless, not in full uniform, and I always have these crazy kids with me. So, we left the Scout office and went to the Craft Warehouse to get ribbons for Anna's hair for her softball team and I was looking for computer paper to print the Pinewood Derby rules on that would be cute. They didn't have any, so I made the executive decision to use light blue, but they did have some cute ribbons and that was good.
So, now we are on our way home and I went back to McDonalds to get my Apple Dippers and they gave them to me and let me keep the Apple Pies. We happily then went home and ate our apples and Baby went to sleep.
The next hour is a blur of playing Webkinz for Jacob, trying to clean up, do laundry, eat lunch, get showered and ready for my coach's meeting at 2. We had a good meeting, lasted about 45 minutes longer than I thought, so I had to hurry home to turn around and pick up Anna and Topher from school. They were great and Anna apologized again the first thing when we got in the car. She had a great violin practice later that afternoon. I got the cars delivered to the Den Leaders so that was done. Topher did his piano and did a nice job. He is playing Scarborough Fair right now and he thinks the words are really funny. I went on itunes and played the song for him and he hated it. What a nut. We did spelling for both kids and Topher went to soccer with Jay. They got home had baths, and the two little kids went to bed and we sat down to watch TV at 8:20-that was a record for the last little bit of us getting to sit down to relax.
Can't wait to start tomorrow with a meeting with Topher's school at 8:15 AM!

Spring Break

2008-04-02T11:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I have had a busy last few weeks. Jacob and I had so much fun going to Legoland and Disneyland. He was adamant that he didn't want to go on any scary rides, and then when I told him a certain ride was Topher's favorite, he really wanted to go. So, this is the picture of Jacob on that ride. The kid was so scared, but the amazing thing is, he wanted to go on it again! We had a really fun day and beautiful weather. Legoland was not crowded at all, but Disneyland was a bit. Small World was closed, they have to fix the ride because everyone is so fat now that the boats are going to sink-pretty sad statement, but true, so he was a bit sad about that. We had a lot of fun together.
When I was down there, I helped my parents get their house ready to list which I didn't realize was such a big job. So, when I wasn't at an amusement park, I was lifting and hauling and helping the whole time which I was glad to do. But, when I got home and told Jay how much I had done and how much more there was to be done, we decided to go down for Spring Break. My mom heated the pool so the kids could swim and we worked a ton. Jay got their back hill looking fabulous. He had a lot of fun because my dad would go get day laborers and then Jay could speak Spanish and get them working! Topher got to go out and help Teedy clear out her house, so that was fun for him. If you want to see the house, it is listed on realtor.com in La Canada-zip 91011-it looks so amazing. It is really sad to think that someone else is going to be living there, but I think it will be a good thing. They had really good success at their Open House, and it looks like they should have some offers pretty soon. I am so tired though because I had to fly back Monday morning at 6:30. When my alarm went off at 4:35 I wasn't quite ready to get up! Jay drove back with the kids and my dad and then my dad flew home on Saturday. There was a lot of stuff I could do inside the house that my dad wasn't quite as good at, so while I was working with my mom he got to go to this really cool baseball game at the Colliseum between the Red Sox and Dodgers celebrating 50 years in LA-I am glad someone got to do something fun! My house is a total wreck, poor Jay with the kids and he was so tired too, it is pretty bad. I am so sad Julio got deported and couldn't clean while we were gone. Oh well, another day of filth isn't going to kill anyone. Of course that is what I have been saying for way too long now, so things aren't too good.
Easter was really fun. We took time off and went to the Country Club for dinner. When Anna got her food she said,"I haven't had a dinner this good in a long time." After she realized what she said, she did say that I made her good dinners too, but I think the pasta casserole doesn't quite compare to prime rib roast! Topher loved his lamb and the baby ate so much it was incredible. She had a cereal bowl full of blackberries, rasberries and blueberries-three seperate bowls of each, a plate of ham, and bread. It was pretty amazing. We went back to the Country Club on Wednesday and had the same waiter and he remembered her and asked what kind of berries she wanted to start with that night. I don't have any pictures because we used my dad's camera and I haven't copied them yet.
While I was gone, my friend painted my room, so it is nice to not have blue splotches of paint all over the place and to feel good when I go in there, and not crazy, but of course this adds to the mess. It will all get straightened out at some point!

Update

2008-03-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

OK-so it has been forever since I blogged-I feel like I got so behind and then it has just been kind of overwhelming to get caught up, but I am going to be super brief, hit the highlights, get caught up, and then I can get back into it!
I can't believe it was Halloween when I last wrote. We had Topher's 8th birthday, he had a super fun party at an inflatables place where they jumped around for a couple of hours and I was so glad it wasn't at my house. He got so many presents that he had a huge bag that we took down to LA for Christmas that were still unopened from his birthday-most of it LEGO sets he wanted me to build with him and I never had time, but man that kid got a lot of presents. His baptism was very nice he was so sweet, and the best was after he got baptised and came out of the water, Jacob yelled," yea-Topher got baptised!" He was so excited for his big brother. Topher and Anna spoke and sang a song and did a nice job. That was Thanksgiving weekend and our Thanksgiving was delicious if I do say so myself. It was fun to have Jay's parents up and Teedy for that and Jennifer and her family.
Christmas was great-we went to LA and had beautiful weather. We went on a hike, we went to Griffith Observatory and tried to go to Disneyland but it was too crowded so we left. The kids got electric ride on scooters and they are really cool. Jacob wondered where his was when he got a box of magnetix, but he got over it. Anna's scooter is at the shop right now because she wore a hole in the tire doing so many skids, they look so cute riding them and it is nice because Topher can ride his to Scouts and piano and Anna rides hers to violin. It's great. The weather was crazy getting back from LA but we finally made it, we spent a sick night in Winnemucca, NV, but we made it home in one piece. We had such a snowy January-we even had a snow day.
At the end of January was Anna's 10th birthday. She had a fun party at a salon for kids. She loved getting her hair, makeup and nails done. They had cute pink sparkly drinks so it was a great time. Once again, so glad it wasn't at my house! I think the best part of her birthday though was flying to LA by herself to go and see Wicked. She got to do a backstage VIP tour and meet cast members and see costumes, so she had a great time. We have been doing a lot of singing along to Popular the last little bit-at least it kind of supplanted High School Musical 2 songs for a while.
The kids have done a lot of skiing with their dad this year and it has been really fun. A fun time was when Jay's parents came up and went skiing with the kids. Jay was embarrassed because Topher kept telling his grandpa to hurry up, and then he stopped that and yelled encouragement. They had a fun day.
We finished up basketball for the kids around Thanksgiving and it was a really fun season for both of them. I coached Anna's team and we had a blast. She improved so much it was awesome, she did great. Topher was hilarious on his team because he always wanted the ball and so did another kid so they would steal the ball from each other. Not quite the best teamwork, but hilarious. They never called travelling so Topher would just drop his shoulder and drive in and shoot, it was great. They both did so well and we had so much fun watching them-except the Saturday when there was no heat in the gym and I thought poor Baby Sharon was going to freeze to death!
We are now getting ready for baseball/softball season. Topher has started his soccer season and had his first game last Saturday. He tried out to be on a more competitive team and made it and I think he will like it better. The kids are a lot better and he is far from the best one on his team now, but they are keeping score and he really likes it. They have some Croatian coach who only shows up to about 1/8th of the stuff, so we are a bit handicapped, but I think the other dads are fed up and have taken over. It should be a fun season. Baseball practice starts next week so things should get quite busy here soon.
Anna is still taking violin and she is really making good progress. It is nice to actually hear something musical come out of that violin! Topher started piano and he is doing well. His main goal is to play songs as fast as he can-sometimes not the best method. Jacob is doing rock climbing and he really likes it. He looks so cute in his harness-wish the same could be said for me, but he really likes his class.
Baby Sharon is doing great. She is so cute walking around and babbling all the time. She is a bit behind on her speech but since my boys were too, I am not that worried. I am not quite ready to start speech therapy at this stage.
We have had 3 rounds of strep throat this winter. Right now, Jacob and Sharon have it. Poor Sharon was throwing up in the car when we were driving through to get her perscription-not good, it made for a long ride home for all of us. They are doing much better. Anna is sick with an ear infection-she came down at 5 this morning and I haven't seen her since I gave her some medicine, so I don't think she feels very good.
Jacob, Sharon and I leave for LA tomorrow for a little fun time trip. Poor Jacob just gets dragged from here to there all day long, so this is his little treat. He is really excited to go to Legoland on Thursday. He has told me is not going on any scary rides! I am trying to get the house ready to leave, it makes me a bit nervous, but Jay will do great.
Oh, I forgot to mention the house flood we had a couple of weeks ago. A hose bib broke just away from the house, so water was flowing into the crawl space under our house. We had about 700 gallons, and it broke right outside the firplace in the family room, so the water was all under the family room, kitchen and all the way to the stairs-no serious damage thankfully, just a huge pain. We had dehumidifiers and heaters going for about a week and the house was in total disarray, but we finally got it cleaned and put back together last weekend. Of course I had just fired my cleaning people, but my really good helpers got deported, but now they are back in Utah-they're really good and cheap if you need help Cath-so their replacements were horrible. It has been good though to make the kids clean and be more responsible. They are way ahead of me-when I went to BYU and lived at the Riv and had my first cleaning check, I had never mopped a floor nor had I cleaned a bathtub, I had no clue-I used the mop in the bathtub so I wouldn't have to bend over-nice I know, so I am saving my kids from not knowing how to clean-aren't I a great mom?
Anyway, that is my 'brief' update on our lives the past few months, I will try to stay more up to date and insert some more pictures, our computer died, and Jay was able to retrieve the data, but I don't quite know where it is.

Halloween

2007-11-15T00:31:00.000-08:00

We had such a fun Halloween! It was the warmest one we've had since we lived in California, so it was great. Anna looked so pretty, and she was so excited. My mom made her a beautiful costume that was the new Barbie movie character. I thought my mom was going to have a heart attack as Anna was playing tag and running around at a party we went to before trick or treating. The costume was ripped when she got home, but she still looked great. Topher was Harry Potter and he looked fabulous. I put black hair spray in his hair, and none of the neighbors even recognized him. His owl on his shoulder didn't quite work, but he looked great nonetheless. Jacob was the same thing as last year-Dash. He came up with a different, hard to make costume on a daily basis, so when he was playing dress up in Dash I gushed about how great he looked-aren't I a great mom? He still did look cute in it though, so I am not all bad! Baby Sharon looked so cute in her poodle costume. She didn't go trick or treating, but she liked her suit.
As a little side note, as I was feeding Jacob dinner tonight, I was telling him he needed to eat his vegetables or he could go sit on his bed. I started to count to three, and then he said, "I need to poop. That's allowed, right?" He took care of business and then came back and ate his vegetables. He is a very funny little boy.

October

2007-11-02T06:40:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it is already November! We had such a busy but fun month of October. My birthday was great, it was fun to talk to people and to have a day all about me, who doesn't love that? I had a really nice birthday this year. I can't believe that I am 34, that sounds sooo old, but I guess it is all relative. I can't believe that I am married to someone who is 36! We finished up Lacrosse season for Anna and she had a great time. She got the award for being the best goalie on the team, and she really enjoyed it. Jay had a great time coaching her and that was a fun thing for them to do together. Topher finished football and had a great season. As he will tell you, every time he touched the ball, he scored a touchdown, but since he got the ball three times, that's all the times he scored, but still a very impressive stat! He had a fun team and loved playing. He can hardly stand it though he wants to play tackle so bad! I thought we were going to have a break between these sports and then basketball, but no, we went right into basketball. I am coaching Anna's team and we've had a lot of fun so far. She is so cute playing, I love to watch her. Topher has a nice team too. They both have their first games tomorrow, so we'll see how everybody does!
We have had a lot of company and that has been really fun. We had such a fun visit with Christine and Clark and their family-it was so nice of them to make the trek over here to come see us. The kids had a great time, and so did we.
Halloween was yesterday and the kids loved it, I will have to do another blog later about Halloween because I am trying to get the house cleaned up, and then off to basketball myself in about an hour. I just thought I would write a quick post-time really flies if you don't stay on top of it!

Car Rides

2007-10-03T15:05:00.000-07:00

One of the things that has changed this year with the kids' new school is that they no longer ride the bus. It is kind of a huge pain, but it is also fun to see them right when they get out of school and to hear how their days went. I also get to spend a lot of time with Jacob who is always good for a laugh. Today I looked back and Jacob (who has stopped putting his underwear back on after he goes to the bathroom) has his penis pulled out of his pants. He says, "my penis doesn't have any arms or a face, my penis is handicapped." A little side note is that Jacob thinks being handicapped is a good thing since they get all the good parking spots, so he always tells Topher and Anna they are handicapped-which they don't like very much, so he does it more! Anyway, it was a very hilarious ride home and once the other two heard what he was saying they just egged him on even more so that practically the whole way home he was screaming about his handicapped penis! Quite a ride!

Baby Sharon

2007-09-20T08:54:00.000-07:00

As today is Sharon's 10 month birthday, I just have to write a bit about how great she is. She is such a good and happy baby. She has brought such a great spirit into our house-we all just love her to bits. She had her check up yesterday and went from being in the 50th percentile for height and 95th for weight, she slimmed down to 75th for height and 90th for weight. Her head is holding steady at 75th. The doctor said she looked great and healthy. She had to get a couple of shots, but she did OK.
Sharon loves to head up the stairs, and she is pretty fast at it too. She gets so excited when she sees one of the kids, she just thrashes all around in my arms and yells with excitement-she knows action is coming. She gets dragged around so much and never gets her naps at the same time two days in a row, and she is just the best, happiest little baby. We are so glad she is in our family!

Our Future?

2007-09-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

Friday night was a fun night. Anna had been going to a mini cheerleading camp at the high school and got to cheer at the game on Friday night. She absolutely loved it. She loved the cheerleaders, their outfits, dances, everything about it-she was in heaven. The girls do this again during basketball season and she can hardly wait!
Then, the next day we had Topher's first official football game. He did a great job on the O-line and held back the defense guy who was bigger than he was. The first play the kids knocked Topher down, but that was the last time. I don't think Tuffy had ever played against someone who actually could push and it surprised him a bit, but then he learned. He did a great job and his team won.
Could this be how we spend our weekends for the next several years-watching Anna do cheerleading and watching Topher play football? Who knows, but it was fun.

Jacob starts school

2007-09-05T19:34:00.001-07:00

Today, Jacob started preschool and he did great! I was a little nervous since Jacob thought he was going to his old preschool and he kind of struggles with change, but I was really proud of him and he did super! He goes to a lady's house and there are two other little boys from our ward so it should be a good situation for him. He had to take in his favorite stuffed animal today and he took in his Shrek doll, but he was adamant that it was not a stuffed animal, but a stuffed ogre, so who knows what he said at school. He did tell Topher after picking them up that he would like his attention, so I assume his teacher said that today-it was cute. Another milestone crossed!

Court...Again

2007-08-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I had my day in court today, and I only had to pay a $25 fine. Not too bad. I did a lot of sitting around, and baby Sharon was really good until the judge came in and then she started to fuss, so the prosecutor bumped me to the front of the line and we were able to get out of there. A great way to spend two hours on a Tuesday morning.
Then, I got home, opened the front door, and was hit by a horrible smell. I thought Jay must've had the worst BM on the planet, but then when I went upstairs, I had a worse mess. Jacob had diarrhea coming down his leg, there was poop all over the playroom and it was just gross. I got him in the tub, and as I am scraping crap off his legs, I was totally gagging, oh, it was bad! So, now we have laundry going and everything is shipshape again! What a great way to come home!

First Day of School

2007-08-27T17:10:00.000-07:00

There is nothing quite like it, the first day of school. The excitement, the anticipation, the dread, so many emotions, it is a very unique day.
We had a great first day of school today. Anna and Topher both have very nice teachers and we are very excited about their new school. Pretty cool to be in a school on the very first day it opens!
It is great to be back on a schedule and making progress in all our activities!

Fun with Cousins

2007-08-26T19:01:00.000-07:00

We had such a fun time with our Horsley cousins. We were so happy to have Catherine and Tony and their boys come up for a visit. We loved having them at Topher's first football game and going to bug day at the Botanical Gardens. I think one of the highlights though was going to Chuck-A-Rama. The kids had so much fun picking out crazy things to eat with nobody telling them anything. Topher had about 20 plates of food, and I think I had about 20 rolls! We had a great time visiting and the kids all played so well together. I was pretty happy when McKay came to sit on my lap. We had a great time.

Jacob's Birthday

2007-08-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Jacob is 4! Time has just flown by-I guess he is just that much fun! We love Jacob and all his silliness and new names daily. For his birthday he was Fish Boy and he got mad when cards/presents said Jacob on them. When we went to church in La Canada he said his name was Kama-his Bionicle name- and Shark Boy. He is a nut. I made him a very cute Lego cake if I do say so myself and he had some neighborhood kids over for cake-plenty of party for a 4 year old. I look back and contrast my other kids' 4th parties and Jacob's falls a bit short, but he had fun and I am trying to simplify not make things more grandiose.
After Jacob went to bed, we heard a huge thud and then a ton of screaming-he had fallen out of bed. His lip was totally bleeding and he said his tooth hurt. I can't tell yet this morning if his tooth is dead or not, he won't let me look at it. Not a good way to start your fourth year, and if I have another kid with no front tooth for years, I will just die-not to mention that people will think something is going on down here!
I also have to mention that Jacob/Kama/Shark/Fish Boy owns clothes, but we made progress by getting on the Star Wars underwear-he was in his birthday suit from the moment we got home from church, so we tried!

Back from the Beach

2007-08-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the beach! Anna and Topher had so much fun boogie boarding and swimming in the waves, Jacob loved playing in the sand and running from the waves, and baby Sharon loved sitting in her stroller having her bottle, she was amazing! We missed Jay a ton, especially since the beach is down a huge canyon and I was a total pack mule, but he would have had a bunch of fun. It really was a fun trip and fun to be in Southern California, I miss all the fun things to do down there. I went to a play with my good friend Lisa Marriott, we went to Griffith Observatory that just reopened after a four year renovation, and just fun to relax and swim in the pool. Jacob made huge progress and jumped off the diving board tons of times. We had a great time. The driving I can do without, but it was really fun to be there.
I have to say a few words about the baby's wig that I think is totally hilarious. We got it at a children's boutique there at the beach, it is supposed to look like Lil' Kim, and she looks so funny in it. She left it on on entire evening, even eating dinner. This one lady asked me why I had a wig on a baby, and I said just because it's funny, what other reason do you need? Some people thought she was a doll, and then when they realized she was real they would really crack up. She was great!

An End to Legal Woes

2007-07-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally did it, I got an Idaho driver's liscence. It is a winner. I had a hair appointment today and I couldn't believe I had to go with black roots an inch long for my picture yesterday, but since my pride in my appearance got me into so much trouble in the first place, I decided I had to bite the bullet, also, there would be a warrant out for my arrest if I didn't, so pretty easy choice!
My babysitter forgot to come yesterday, so I had to take all four kids to the DMV. I really knew my stuff though because I was able to answer the questions with two kids on my lap, and Topher and Anna fighting over who was going to get to enter in my answer. At least I got my dumb liscence though!
Then, we went to "court" to process the tickets, and Anna was freaking out that we were going to be attacked by criminals-it was great. I got some of my infractions erased and then I got a court date for the other two-Anna is very nervous that I am going to be arrested and taken to jail, but never fear, things are under control!
After court, we all went to the zoo and had a great time. It was a good day.
Today we all went to the dentist which was quite an adventure as well. Jacob was so cute and excited about it, he had a lot of fun. He got a Power Rangers toothbrush and he yelled out "Woohoo, I love the Power Rangers!" Topher got his sealants put on and nobody had any cavities, nobody except Jay, but that's his own deal, he wouldn't even tell me how many he had, so who knows.
The kids are down at the pool swimming with a babysitter and my visiting teacher just called to see if she could come over, I was tempted to say no, but now is as good as time as any, so, I have got to run!

Topher's Birthday Party

2007-07-19T12:28:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Anna got mad at Topher for playing her game with out her.
Topher wrote that sentence-he thinks my blog should be all about him, he started out to write about the fact that he went to a birthday party-hence the title, but then I suppose it was more important to talk about a fight he had with his sister!

Healthy

2007-07-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

Well, today the three girls in the family all had doctor's appointments.
Anna got a clean bill of health after a horrible UTI. We had to take her to the ER last Sunday, so it was nice to have her back healthy again.
Baby Sharon had a check up and weighed in at over 20 pounds-almost 21, which is 95th percentile, and she was between 50-75th in heighth-not the best stats, but she sure is cute. She doesn't know how to eat, so the doctor asked me if I wanted to send her to occupational therapy for her to learn how to swallow, but I decided to wait-they told me the same thing with Topher and all of a sudden he learned how to eat and was just fine. She isn't super happy today since she had 4 shots, but she is doing just great.
I had a wonderful Doctor's appointment-after having blood that was my thinnest ever on Saturday when they told me not to hesitate to go to the ER if I got a cut or anything, so today when I went back in I learned that I am off my medication! I am so happy-it has been such a pain and I am sick of it. So that was good reports from all three of us.
Topher and Jacob are doing great. I had to give Topher a guilt trip today because he wanted to stay home and play instead of going to the church to help tie quilts, so I told him we would send the people who had no blanket a letter saying that it was more important to us to play with our friends than to help make them a blanket. He decided he would go to church and help-they ended up just yelling in the microphone, so I don't know how helpful they were, but I did get a few knots tied, so that was good. Topher Is doing very good at his math. He just typed that last sentence.
I need to go and help him finish his workbook pages

Back Home, Again

2007-07-05T07:39:00.000-07:00

We made it home on Tuesday night from Utah and it was so nice to be home. We stopped at IKEA in Salt Lake and that took a while, but we did get a new TV stand, so that worked out well. I stopped to drop Jay off at the airport and since his car doesn't start a lot of the time, I waited for him. While I was waiting, a police officer came up and asked me for my registration, well, apparently, I had neither registration nor insurance, and then I knew it was going to be bad because I also have no current driver's liscence. I was very lucky I wasn't arrested and that I didn't get the car impounded, so that was nice, but I do need to take care of certain problems ASAP! So, we got home a little late thanks to my run in with the law, but it turned out OK.
Our fourth of July was just great. We did some fireworks, roasted some marshmallows, and had a great time. It was pretty hot yesterday, so sitting by the fire wasn't the best, but we had a lot of fun.
Anyway, Jay is back at work now, and we have our first day of summer here at home by ourselves. I have decided we are going to do work and not just watch TV for the next two months, so we'll see how that goes. I have a ton of workbooks just ready and waiting. I am sure that Topher and Anna will be very excited. Anna has to get back to violin too. She hasn't touched it since her recital in May and she was starting to make some really good progress. I would really like for her to finish book 1 of Suzuki by Christmas, so we have to get hopping!
Not too much else going on, we had a great trip to Utah, it was so fun to see everybody, and really fun for all the little cousins to get together and to play/swim together. I think my family's favorite thing was to go to Seven Peaks. That was a lot of fun and everyone was able to do something they liked. I really liked being home though yesterday and just worrying about feeding my family, that was a lot easier, but it was fun to get to try everybody's different recipes down in Utah. Kimberly inspired me to get going on my ice cream, and Catherine gave me a great salad dressing and other salad ideas, also loved the salmon tacos, and Christine's corn encrusted chipotle chicken was so good, I need to look online and find that recipe. It was great, oh, and we had "fancy" S'mores last night, Jay was very impressed and a huge fan of the Keebler Fudge ones. Thanks for all the great ideas!

Working Out

2007-06-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

I worked out yesterday for the first time in about a month, and it was pretty ugly. I think the air conditioner was broken at the Y because it was so hot in there I thought I was going to pass out/throw up, and that was before the class even started! I thought my arms were going to fall off during our "warm up" which is never a good sign, so I bailed on the class and went up and did the elliptical machine. At least I did something!
I have been trying to get back into basketball, but our numbers are pretty slim during the summer, so both days I have been a little late, and everybody has left, which doesn't make me very happy when I get there-oh well, maybe I can get my act together next week!
I think the Fun Run in Provo sounds really fun, I wish we could stay down there for the 4th and drive back on Thursday, but we can't, so oh well, maybe next year!
We are still trying to get our house back together this week, hanging pictures, etc...so far it is pretty slow progress although I did get all of the baby's stuff out of my room and upstairs into Jacob's, and Jacob's stuff in Topher's closet, and Anna's closet cleaned out too, so I guess I have been making some progress, now I feel better.
I can't believe we are going out of town again, I feel like we are just barely getting things under control, but it will be fun. This weekend is going to have to be a work weekend so we don't come home to a disaster. I really want to see Evan Almighty, but it might have to wait...we'll see. Anna and I have a Pedicure party on Saturday that she is very excited about, it should be fun!

Back Home

2007-06-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

We are back home and it was so nice to sleep in my own bed after being gone for so long. Of course our house turned into an atom bomb with suitcases and junk everywhere, but it was really nice to be home.
I had a really fun weekend with 6 other girlfriends from college. I was fortunate to have such a nice group of friends and that we have kept in touch. Jay came out with us on out boat trip on Saturday and that was really fun. I was so glad that Jay flew down to Provo, and Jeff was glad that Jay was on the boat so that he wasn't the only man with 7 crazy ladies! I did a little tubing, and that was fun. The water was freezing, so we got on the tube on the side of the boat and then they pulled us in when we were done-we held on for dear life because that water was cold! Not quite as crazy as the 14" of snow I was traipsing through in my flip flops up at Snowbird-boy did I seriously not pack well, but what a fun trip, girl time, relaxation, very fun! I really like all my friends, and it is fun to see everyone with kids now, and how different everyone parents, etc...just fun to be around.
Jay stayed home sick yesterday and now Anna is sick too. I don't know if it is the same thing Topher and I had in Palm Springs, Ann was sick when we were there, I don't know, but she is home throwing up, fortunately she has made it to the toilet each time. She got so sick in Palm Springs and there was throw up all over the room. The couch, curtains, everywhere. I called housekeeping and they brought a set of sheets, and I was like, ummm, not going to cut it, we need major help, so then they brought about 10 trash bags and carted and the vomit stuff away, wouldn't it be fun to be a maid? The funny thing was they were talking about how gross it was in Spanish, but I just pretended that I didn't understand so at least they could complain to each other...I am so compassionate when people are cleaning up my kid's throw up...
Anyway, baby is crying, she is in her crib now and doing great. She is almost crawling. Her bassinet was in the laundry room and fortunately I was changing a load after I put her down, and I looked over and she was half out, hanging on her stomach, soooo, no more bassinet for Baby Sharon!

Palm Springs

2007-05-30T22:56:00.000-07:00

We have been having a great time in Palm Springs. The kids have done so much swimming and had a blast. We saw Pirates and Shrek, and that was fun. Jacob fell asleep for most of Pirates which was good because he kept asking who was a good guy and since you have no idea, I couldn't answer the questions.
We went mini-golfing last night and that was fun. Topher and Anna ran ahead and basically played hockey and Jacob let me tee off and then he would pick up the ball and place it right next to the hole and then tap it in-we made a great team!
So far no major sunburns, just lots of fun. Jay has played two rounds of golf which has been really fun for him. He told me he wants me to start taking lessons but then I told him he would get mad when I get better than he is-pretty cocky, I know-and he admitted he would, but he would try not to!
We went on the coolest hike the other day. It was along a river in this canyon. We had a great time. I will put some of my pictures up when I get home.

Travelling

2007-05-24T20:48:00.001-07:00

Well, we made it today...I felt quite proud of myself as I got everyone out the door on time to the airport by myself, and most impressidly with no yelling. It was quite miraculous. Topher and Anna really helped me get ready and I was proud of them. Jacob's contribution was to wet the bed this morning. He has decided that Pull-ups are "stinky," and he no longer wants to wear them. I was able to get the sheets in the dryer before we had to leave. Hopefully, Jay can pick up the loose ends when he is home tonight.

Garage Sale

2007-05-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

We had our big garage sale yesterday, and after baking all afternoon Friday and getting up at 7 AM to bake more, and to set things up, we had much success. The kids made almost $100, and they worked really hard. Topher was hilarious because he would hound everyone on the street until they bought something from him. Anna was totally into it and had special promotional sales running throughout the day. Jacob just came out and licked all the cupcakes, so that was really helpful. I just took them back inside and then we resold them.
Jay and I sold quite a bit of stuff, but DI will get a few more things tomorrow. We made a couple of hundred dollars, so that was pretty good.
Topher had his last soccer game yesterday and then he had a pizza party where he ate 9 pieces of pizza. He got the award for best defense, so we were proud of him. Topher wants me to write that he even blocked one with his knee. He was very good.
I am a little bit worried about this week coming up. Jay leaves early tomorrow morning, and then I have everyone on track break and then we fly out of here on Thursday. Should be exciting. Hopefully I don't just scream for three days straight. I am looking forward to our trip. We have been waiting to see so many movies, the kids are really excited, and so am I. I am worried about the sun down there though. I think my medicine makes me super sensitive to the sun. I burn at baseball games in the evening, so I am going to be a mess. The baby is obviously totally pale, and Jacob is about transparent. I have to buy a bunch of sunscreen this week.
Anyway, just a quick update-I love the feedback and the comments!

Going to Church

2007-05-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

As I sat in church on Sunday, yes it was Mother's Day, but these aren't Mother's Day thoughts, I just had to laugh at all the "characters" there are in wards, and there are always the same kind of people. I had that thought as I was watching the lady with her nursing, cloth-diaper wearing, toddler left sacrament with her baby in a sling to go out. (Doesn't every ward have one of these types?) Then I laughed about the choir director who makes us sing all these weird songs just so she can be the loudest in the chapel-totally my choir director growing up. I don't know, it just is funny how in each of my different wards there are these characters who just crack me up. Then I got to thinking, who am I? How do people see me? Hopefully for more than an outspoken loudmouth, but who knows-I can't get inside everyone's heads-probably a good thing.
We made our flight reservations for California yesterday and I am so excited to fly and to go down there. It will be a nice break. Hopefully it isn't too hot in Palm Springs, but it will be fun. The kids are really excited about it.
I am trying to pick out a paint color for my bedroom. I am going for blue, but I am having a hard time not having it be either turquoise or purple, so it is a struggle. I am sick of buying all these samples and then they are awful. What a pain.
Everyone in our family is really excited about the garage sale tomorrow. It is a neighborhood thing, so we get lots of people. I told the kids we could do a bake sale and they could keep all the money, but they had to pay me back for supplies-Topher wasn't too sure about that, but he agrees. He was very concerned that he wasn't going to get any, so we talked about the book Elephant Eats the Profits and he has now decided to only eat the leftovers-maybe. We'll see how we do tomorrow...

Mother's Day 2007

2007-05-12T14:50:00.000-07:00

My two favorite Sharons! On the eve of Mother's Day, I have been thinking about my mom. I have to say that my mom was/is the best mom ever. I know everyone says that, but it is true. I always had the best treats, costumes, posters, projects, you name it growing up. Sometimes it was even kind of embarassing how much better my stuff was then everyone else's. Kind of, but I mostly loved dominating everyone! I was always so proud when my mom came to school, and everyone told me how pretty she was, and she was always helping. From being an art teacher to helping with the Orchestra, she was always involved, and I loved it, it was great to have my mom around. I think it drove my mom crazy that she had the wacko tomboy for her daughter, but she always supported me in my endeavors and desires. I do think that was pretty hard when I told my softball team to call me "Butch." My parents were worried I was a lesbian, but they probably had pretty good reason-I was a bit of a wierdo.
Then comes chapter 2, the trauma of the teenage years. I can't say I was the easiest teenager, in fact I think I was pretty hard and I just about drove my mom crazy, but she was always there trying to help. Sometimes I didn't want the help, remember how I said my mom was always the best, this continued with her wanting me to be my best all the time, and so, we fought. Even though we fought quite a bit, I knew I could always count on my mom, and that whatever she did for me would be her best. I remember my Laurel presentation/display table and mine was so awesome, it was kind of embarassing for the girl next to mine. I have to take a bit of credit and due to the fact that I was so awesome there were lots of great things to display, but anyway, my display was great. I remember making my Laurel quilt and not caring at all about it, but then when I got to Mutual and saw my quilt all set up, it was really nice and it made me happy. I can't believe I just turned that whole thing over to my mom, but I know she has a lot better taste than I do. Then, we fought some more and I left for BYU. I remember I probably said something super sassy and rude to my mom as she was leaving and she told me, "Thanks for making it easy to leave you here." Who knows what I said, but I know I was pretty ungrateful and snotty all wrapped up in a package of joy, and I feel bad about that. I wish I had been nicer to my mom when we lived together, but I can't go back in time and change how I behaved, I just am kind of embarassed about how rude I was to my mother, all the time, and how nice she was to me and kept giving and doing things for me, most of the time-except when she had had enough.
Moving on to another epoch of my life, college was a lot of the same as high school. I thought I knew everything and I didn't want to listen to anyone tell me what to do, least of all my mom. She was only trying to help me reach my goals, but I didn't see it that way and I reacted in immature and selfish ways. I guess when I got off track and made decisions that made me unhappy, I took it out on her, which was stupid, but she continued to try to help me find my way to happiness.
On to happier times. I guess I can say that a huge turning point in my relationship with my mom was when I got engaged. I had finally decided I was going to stop bucking the system and that I was going to do what I knew I should, and I was a lot happier for it, and therefore all my relationships were better. My mom was so wonderful in the planning of my wedding. I had the most wonderful wedding ever. I didn't pick out most of it, but I loved all of it.
Ever since then, my mom has been one of my best friends, and she has helped me so much. She is always there when we move, when we have a baby, when we need some help, she is always willing. My mom has helped me scrub out the most disgusting house ever that we bought in Fremont, helped me paint rooms, and always makes the most delicious meals when she comes to visit. From the small things to the big things, my mom is still the best and always gives me the best there is.
As I have thankfully matured over the years, I have come to appreciate my mom's strength and her example of Christlike love. I have never known someone as giving as she is, of her time, talents, and everything she has. I really love my mom, and I am going to miss her this Mother's Day.

Baseball Fever

2007-05-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

I feel like all I have been doing for the past few weeks has been sitting at baseball games. It is so fun to see the kids progressing, and I love meeting the parents , visiting, etc., but it is sooo chaotic getting out the door, with everyone fed and with somewhat clean clothes on. Then, we get home late with everyone needing baths, more food and homework to finish. When they get a hit or make a play though, it is all worth it. Poor Jacob and Baby Sharon get dragged around pretty good, but that is life in a big family!vzvs tf j kf ( a little contribution from JaCOB THERE)weghrdfbnhr5ebn5reb 5r4ebn45reb (more help)
Anyway, our house is back a mess with more work on retexturizing the walls, and then more painting next week. Our landscaping still isn't quite back together, but hopefully will be soon.
Well, I had better go and get dinner ready so we can get to our game on time!

My Own Private Idaho

2007-05-06T16:25:00.000-07:00

Well, I can't believe it, but I guess I will join in the fun of blogging. I have been talked into it by my sister-in-law, Catherine, so I can't dissapoint her. I don't really know who will read this or why I am writing it, but here goes.
For my first post, I think I will be brief. We have survived another week, and that is a good thing. Everyone in our little family is just plugging along. Anna is doing great at softball, and Topher is doing really well at baseball and soccer. I had to miss Topher's game on Saturday, but it was so cold and windy I didn't want to take the baby. Jacob continues to be his own little self and currently is trying to figure out what he is allowed to say. I can't believe some of the words he knows, the joys of being the third child. So far we have vetoed "butt" and "duh," but he delights in constantly asking me about these words and others. Little baby Sharon is a true delight. She is still struggling to consistently sleep through the night, but she is so good all the time, it is hard to think that she should be better, but don't we always do that?
We just finished watching the first segment of the PBS show on the Mormons, and it was pretty good. I think they spent too much time on polygamy after they made the point that these people weren't Mormons, but were always associated with Mormons/Utah, so that was pretty dumb, but it was pretty good over all. The segment on the Mountain Meadows Massacre raised some interesting questions, I can't even begin to put myself in the shoes of those early Saints, but any way you slice it, they killed innocent women and children...hard to reconcile.
We had a nice Sunday, but right now we are kind of at the point where everyone is sick of sitting around doing nothing and there seems to be some fighting springing up-shocking, I know. It is too cold to go for a walk, so that is a pain. Everyone is excited about the Amazing Race finale tonight, so I guess I can use that as leverage for good behavior for the next couple of hours.
Anyway, that is all for now, I feel pretty stupid doing this, but it's out there, so, enjoy!