The Blomstedt Bunch

My painting

2011-01-24T13:37:00.003-07:00

The title of this post is referring to the fact that it was painted FOR me, not by me. The artist, of course, would be John. he has only painted two other pictures since we moved last March, so he was really looking forward to getting into his painting again. I'll need to post pics of the other two in another post. He started this last Monday and he spent a few hours that day making that beautiful shade of red and then doing the first phase of the picture. It was fun to walk into the laundry/craft room all week and see it there, teasing me :). Then Saturday, after we returned from BBall games, he spent most of the day completing it's beauty. It is a 16 by 40 inch panorama. He painted it to go above our bed and incorporated the red color from the accent pillows. It is gorgeous and I. LOVE. IT. His talents always amaze me. I'm grateful to be the recipient! I'm already looking forward to the next one!! My new realistic goal for blogging will be to swap back and forth between highlights of last year and current events. I really want to document last years happenings, but don't want to get to far behind on the here and now. I hope it works :D!

Church History Vacation, Part 1

2011-01-02T18:40:00.006-07:00

March was a BUSY month at our house. It began with JJ's 11th Bday on the 3rd. This picture is a glimpse of JJs favorites. The ice cream flavor is cookie dough and the cake is chocolate cake with chocolate icing and for the toppings, it is 1/2 crushed butterfinger, and then 1/4 each of mini MM's and mini choc chips. He likes his options!

John and I really wanted to take the kids to visit some of the church history sites that were not very far away, before we moved West. So despite all the craziness of moving, we incorporated it into our plans and the second weekend of March we loaded up the crew and drove East. Our first stop was Kirtland, Ohio which was about 4 1/2 hours away. We were lucky to have beautiful weather on this particular day, and we spent about 3 hours in Kirtland enjoying the sights and feelings in that area. We were guided by two very sweet sister missionaries who I'm sure we left our own impression on :)! The older kids were very well behaved and really seemed to be soaking it all in, which was of course our hope. Braxton and Tori really took seriously the journals we gave them to record their feelings in and JJ was documenting everything that he was allowed to on his video camera. The younger ones on the other hand were, well, not quite so well behaved. It was pretty stressful trying to keep them from breaking all of the antiques. Then there was trying to keep them quiet so that the missionaries could share the history of these places and their testimonies. We took quite a lot of pictures and I've tried to narrow it down to specific ones. This next one is of all of us in front of the Newel K Whitney store.

We got lunch and then got back on the road bound for Palmyra, New York. I'm thinking that this was about a 6 hour drive from Kirtland. We got there and checked in to our hotel and tried to get out some wiggles that had gotten pent up in the car. We got an early start the next morning and unfortunately, rain was the forecast. The temp was cooler as well, but it was mid March after all. our time was limited to that one full day. we started at the Grandin Press. this was actually one of the places I think the kids remember the most.

We also went to see the Alvin Smith Grave which was really neat and beautiful. You had to walk up these stairs and at the top of the hill was the cemetery where his grave site was located. Even though it was cold and wet, we probably spent a half hour just walking around the small cemetery. The kids were impressed with the VERY old and sometimes unmarked graves.

This is a shot taken at the Smith Farm. The highlight here was obviously ending with a walk through the sacred grove. Unfortunately the wind had picked up and it was making being outside pretty miserable, so we were definitely a little more more rushed than we would have liked. We had the kids pose in front of a tree in the grove to get a picture and then headed back to the car. This other pic is of the Palmyra temple through the trees. Too bad we didn't have the time, or babysitting, to go in.

We decided to make the hour drive down to the Peter Whitmer farm in Fayette. Once again, we were not disappointed to have made the extra effort. The Chapel/Visitors Center was beautiful and is one of the pictures. Another is of the homestead.

Our last stop in Palmyra was the Hill Cumorah. The weather was really getting bad with wind gusts that would grab the car door and fling it all the way open and rain drops that were starting to feel like tiny sharp pellets. However, since this was a limited time opportunity for us we braved the elements and drove up to the top where the monument stands and held the little ones tight so they weren't blown away. It was still a special and memorable experience and it was amazing to be aware of the hallowed ground that we were standing on. The visitors center at Cumorah was the end of our visit and we made our way back to the hotel very worn out and with lots of impressions on our minds.

The day ended as many do in our house with the kids hugging and wrestling with Dad. We left the next morning and had intended to stop and visit Niagara Falls on the way home, but due to the snow that had arrived we ended up just making our way home and continuing to pack up for the move in less than two weeks!

Catching up......again :)

2010-12-29T14:56:00.004-07:00

Once again, I am catching up. I'm hoping to recap the highlights of our 2010 so that I can feel updated and ready to document 2011 as it happens( we'll see how that goes). One of my earlier posts showed that we began our year with a trip to Hawaii,(well, John and I did anyways). In late February we flew from South Bend, IN to Scottsbluff, NE with the two youngest boys to look for a place to live. We were successful and found a house to rent. The boys definitely enjoyed the trip and especially enjoyed wrestling on their hotel bed, running "very" fast up and down empty hallways, swimming in the hot tub, going out to eat, and of course getting to ride in an airplane! Here are just a few pics from that trip. I have to say, as I was looking back through these, I could not believe how much Kian, especially, has changed in the past 10 months. He has a diaper and a pacifier in these pics and that seriously feels like a lifetime ago already. It is truly amazing sometimes the pace at which life changes. More updates to come.....

Growing up...

2010-10-06T13:54:00.003-06:00

Today I cried. Kian and I sat down during some of our alone time to read some books from the library. He especially enjoyed the first one and requested that it be read twice. After a marathon of six books, I told him I needed to go fix some lunch. He asked me to read the first book another time and I told him, "maybe later." As I walked into the kitchen and I heard him say, "fine, then I'll read it myself." He picks up the book and opens it to the first page and begins to "read" the story fairly accurately page by page. I had never seen him do this before and the moment swept my emotions as I realized that my "baby" is growing up. It's funny how little happenings can shake you and seem so paramount. This was one of those moments for me. I watched the scene unfold and stood there crying. I can't imagine what it will feel like as the milestones progress. How will I watch him trot off to Kindergarten and leave me there ALONE? Or get baptized and so begin his life of independence and responsibility? Or graduate Primary and become a priesthood holder? Or go to High School? College? Mission? How is it possible that my baby can grow up? Well here I am crying again so I guess I should finish this post and go hang out with my little ones.....while they still are little ones.

Kauai,Hawaii baby!!!!

2010-05-07T02:30:00.000-06:00

At the end of January of this year, John had a CME conference in Kauai, so, I of course wanted to tag along! I have wanted to go to Hawaii since I was as little as I can remember. I actually used to say I would get married there ( I learned later that it's a little expensive for all the guests!) John thought it would even add to the fun if we had some buddies, so he called up my brother Bret and his wife Alisha and asked them if they might want to join us. They apparently weren't a hard sell and the planning began! We decided to rent a condo together which turned out to be cost effective and way more fun than staying in a hotel! This trip was amazing and actually exceeded all my expectations! It truly was paradise! This first pic is on our first morning there. We had flown in the night before and we were up before the sun was, so we decided to watch the sunrise while walking along the beach.

This was called the tunnel of trees. It was so neat!

One of my dreams for Hawaii was to find a secluded waterfall like you always see in the movies. We did some research and hiking and found this awesome place! Just after you walk through these trees in the picture above.....

You find this!

I was so excited!!! I contemplated jumping off the waterfall, but since I am not the most coordinated of people, I did not fully trust my abilities for a sure takeoff. My brother however trusted his, and proceeded to jump a few times!

The rope swing looked like like a lot of fun and slightly less dangerous. It required some work to get the rope to start. It was very entertaining to watch though! So John and Bret worked together and the swinging began. We thought John should have the first swing since he had got the rope.

Here he goes.....

And there's his splash!. We didn't get good pictures of Bret and I swinging. Oh, well, it was a fun experience!

John and I tried Scuba Diving and I will sum that up by saying, we will never do that again. We saw some cool things, but the stuff we saw snorkeling was actually cooler and did not require feeling like one's life could end at any moment. John did not find it to be quite the traumatic experience that I did, but did not really enjoy it either.

This is a view of the coast as seen from our Sunset dinner cruise! Check out how BLUE that water is!

Yep, that's a whale tail! It was so hard to get a good picture because every time one came I was too excited to remember to shoot a picture!

These dolphins swam and played alongside our boat for about 10 minutes!

This pic is out of order, but it is a shot from our Balcony of the main living area of the condo. It was so nice!

This was actually the day before the cruise. It had rained most of the day, but in the late afternoon the sun came out while we were exploring a rocky coast and geocaching, and we got this beautiful pic with a rainbow!

Here's some neat coast picture with all the black Lava Rocks.

Can you believe the color of this water? It was unreal to me.

The rain had made the waves pretty big which made for some cool crashes!

Bret actually got wet while venturing a little close to the edge!

That evening since the rain stopped we figured the waves would be pretty good so we went to the beach and did some boogie boarding, which is soooo much fun, by the way! Here is John and Bret going out to catch another ride!

I took this pic while Alisha and I were sitting on the beach watching the boys board in the water.

More boogie boarding.

We took this pic earlier on the rainy day while we were geocaching. It was so fun to just walk around in the rain because it was warm enough to! It kind of felt like being a kid! Plus, we weren't going to let the rain stop us from enjoying this beautiful piece of the Earth!

Now back to the Sunset Cruise, here is a panoramic of the coastline. Awe-inspiring!

out of order again, but, after the sun had set you could still see the last of the colors and the night moon! It was breathtaking!

The crew members would come around and ask to take pictures of us with our cameras. It was very convenient. This was taken just at the peak of Sunset and was a moment that I will never forget. I could almost hear the music from "Titanic" playing.... it was perfect.

Heading back to the port...

These are some of the crew members helping us on to the dock. They were so funny and great to talk to.

This was a park across the street from one of the beaches and I was thinking my beach house would look really good in the middle of that clearing surrounded by those trees which I LOVED! Unfortunately, the land was not for sale, so that dream will have to wait. And those tree's? They can't survive in climates where the temperature ever dips below 40 degrees, so I guess that counts out Scottsbluff, NE. I guess I'll just have to go back again to see them. DARN!

This was a famous area where they apparently shot several movies, one of which was "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with Harrison Ford, I think? It was beautiful.

This was really just a small taste of the beauty that we encountered. We seriously took about 400 pictures! We ate at some really fun places and met some really fun native people. It was a memorable experience from beginning to end. Hawaii is definitely NOT over rated! I'd go back in a heartbeat, and hope that I do get the opportunity again someday. Anyone volunteering to come along?

Superman( or woman)

2010-05-06T00:34:00.000-06:00

One weekend in early February when we were having yet another blizzard of sorts, the kids were forced to get creative and find a way to have fun indoors. JJ, Tori and Cameron decided it would be fun to jump on Mom and Dad's bed. They also decided to take about 85 pictures of this great fun they were having. Here is a sampling for your enjoyment!

The look on her face says it all. They had a really good time, and in the end all I had was a bed to make, which is not bad considering what other disasters could have occurred with three bored children!

Balancing Act?

2010-05-05T11:16:00.003-06:00

I couldn't help but get a picture to document this. A couple weeks before the move I found my sweetheart working out while eating an ice cream shake! Maybe you could justify that they would cancel each other out. I suppose it's a good thing he likes to exercise since he definitely likes his sweets! You can see he is trying not to laugh when he realizes I'm taking a picture of this.

Where to begin?

2010-04-16T11:58:00.004-06:00

Yes, it has been quite some time since my last post and even then I think I was behind on things I wanted to blog about then. So, a friend of mine earlier this year had done her catch-up by blogging every few days with events that had happened in months previous. I will probably make it my goal to do this, as there is much that I would like to put in this, our family journal of sorts. To begin, we have successfully and (somewhat) smoothly made our move to Scottsbluff , Nebraska. We greatly miss our friends in Indiana, but have been accepted with open and loving arms here and we absolutely love our new community. This has truly been a great blessing that the Lord had planned for us. We are currently renting a house that has plenty of room for visitors! We have done some work here and there, but I will elaborate on that in another post! For today, this is a picture that was taken on the day our moving truck came to drop off our stuff. More to come later on the last few crazy months leading up to this exciting day and other happenings since!

Family Home Evening Treat!

2010-02-19T05:58:00.002-07:00

We have our Family Home Evenings on Sunday since John doesn't get home until 7:15 on Mondays, at which point it is time for bed around here. We have a rotating "job" chart of sorts to share the responsibility of FHE must haves. Among them, activity/game and treat are the most coveted because that of course is their favorite part ( we are hopeful that at least some of the lessons are sinking in through the chaos). A few Sundays ago, Kian was treat, which at the current time means that John or I need to come up with something. We are usually very happy about this as it gives us the option to to something that is fast and does not require a lot of prep or clean up! On this particular Sunday John informed me he already had the treat planned so I didn't give it another thought. When dessert time arrived, the kids were told to sit at the table while John took a bowl and went out the back door. He came in with a huge mound if snow, and proceeded to dump it on the lazy susan in the middle of the table. Then he went and got leftover snow cone syrup from summer and sprayed it directly on top of the snow on the table. I was not able to get a picture at the beginning as I think I was in shock at the voluntary mess he was making, but eventually I realized this was a picture moment and began snapping some shots. The kids thought this was the greatest thing( John was enjoying it as well!) and of course Dad scored some big points for such a unique "treat"!

Is that a....Fork?

2010-01-19T14:48:00.003-07:00

For a couple weeks we had noticed tiny little flakes in our water when we would use the ice dispenser. After getting to the point of pretty much refusing to use the ice, we finally decided one Friday when we really wanted to make some flake free Pina Colada's(virgin, of course) to see what the problem was. So, we pulled the ice tray out, and after removing most of the ice, this is what we found. I was questioning out loud, " How does a fork possibly end up in an ice maker?" John remembered then that the kids had been making their own "homemade" popsicles out of kool-aid, and protein shakes, even water, whatever they had at the moment. We decided to announce that the popsicle craze had to stop as it was becoming a nuisance and making a lot of unnecessary messes. So, as children will do, they looked for a way to hide them. John and I had both pulled a "popsicle" or two out of the ice, but one of the times, it must have been missing it's "stick".

It's kind of hard to see, but this picture shows where the fork had carved into the plastic, thus the white flecks in the drinks. Ewwww!

We left this on an otherwise empty counter as a discussion piece for the next day with the kiddo's. They actually were quite taken with how cool they thought the fork looked, so I'm sure the rest of the please-don't-do-this-again-so-we-don't-have-to-replace-the-ice maker lecture was lost on them.

Braxton Kade, C.K. is 8!!

2010-01-11T13:51:00.017-07:00

My Braxton has turned 8 years old today! In the title I put his household nickname of Braxton Kade C.K. The story behind that is when he was about 3 years old he asked us what the rest of his name was since JJ's name was John Edward IV, or the fourth, as we would say it. So we gave him the extension that day of C.K., standing for "Cool Kid" and it stuck. He still refers to himself as such to this day! Since we have just begun this blogging fun less than a year ago, and since, as I've mentioned before, I consider this my Journal of sorts, I have decided this year for each of my children's birthdays that I will provide a probably not so brief synopsis of them to this point. I thought it would be neat to have when I print this off as a book! So feel free to just buzz through the pictures or read through the tidbits! This first picture is Brax at about 2 and it is one of my very favorites.I love this picture. It is Braxton through and through.

On his blessing day at just a couple weeks old

I'm honestly not sure how he survived this much "love" since it was fairly constant!

Braxton Info: Braxton wants to be an astronaut, a cowboy, a piano player, a missionary,and a good husband and father when he grows up. It's not that he hasn't chosen, he has decided that these ARE the things he will be. He's known this since he could put words together to tell us so. I can't wait to watch him achieve his dreams!

Braxton had true colic from about two weeks until he was about 5 1/2 months. He would have crying spells lasting several hours nearly every day. In all honesty, I believe I have blocked a lot of that time period from my memory. But the amazing thing is, when he came out of it, he has pretty much been a very content and HAPPY kid ever since!

Braxton LOVED Popsicles even when you would think they would be to cold for a kid that young Braxton Info: His favorite color is Green

Love the Bald head

1st birthday- and getting some more of that "love" I was talking about

Love from the momma!

Blackmail for later in life! He brought me this dress of Tori's and wanted it on!

Brax and Tori

2nd Birthday

Braxton Info: Braxton ad imaginary friends by the names of George, Stanley,and Hokey-pokey. From a very young age, I'm thinking 3, he would keep me informed of their daily activities and if they were with us at the moment or not. We just sort of went with the flow of things, as he was in definite belief that these were real, yet invisible beings. I would catch him having conversations. It was interesting, but entertaining! It went on for a couple years. He still refers to them from time to time as his childhood imaginary friends.

Learning to be a big brother with Ashlee!

oops! I'm not sure why this is sideways, but this picture is just so funny. Braxton was clearly not happy about something and I'm sure being asked to sit for pics didn't help matters!

JJ and Brax. I seriously have so many pictures of these two together. I think there are several included in this post! They are very close despite the fact that personality wise, they are really not much alike. They started something called "Brotherly Time" where every night they talk about their day, read scriptures and then make up funny( and strange) stories to make each other laugh. Crazy boys making priceless memories, I'm sure!

Braxton Info: Braxton believed (and hopefully still does!) that he had actual superpowers that he just couldn't tell anyone about. He would whisper to me when no one else was even around that he felt very strongly that this was true and he wondered what I thought. I told him of course that I believed with him, anything was possible!

With our dogs we used to have, Xander and Precious

Braxton loves Basketball and can't wait for the opportunity to play on a team someday!

Braxton and Tori

John and Mike Galbraith did Braxton up like this during a trip to the Beach. Braxton couldn't wait to get home and see the picture!

John painted Braxtons face for the 4th

This picture gives a great view of the beautiful silky white locks Braxton had. He had a bowl cut from age 2-6 because of this.

Braxton Info: As mentioned earlier, Braxton want to be a great piano player. His motivation songs that he really wants to learn are Fur Elise and Canon. He's already begun tapping out Fur Elise. I love his dedication!

Braxton has always liked to dress nice and loves outfits with multiple parts.

Braxton got asked to be the " Play Ball" kid at a Silverhawks game that we went to. He got to go down to the middle of the field and yell play ball into the microphone to start the game. He felt very special! He remembers that day very well and still has the shirt in his drawer!

Brax can pose with the best of them when he wants to

He has played rec soccer several seasons and really enjoys the social aspect of it the most

Showing his Husker Pride!

5th Birthday

Looking "up" to his older brother. Classic.

Holding baby brither Kian

Braxton Info: Braxtons' favorite food is Chinese. However, Braxton has never been a picky eater. One of the only things he will not eat is Mac and Cheese

Braxton and his buddy Spencer on the day that Spence moved to Idaho. They were quite the pair.

First Day of Kindergarten.

Braxton seeing how he measures up to JJ.

Halloween 2007 or a vision of the future?

Jumping on the trampoline in the snow at night.

Braxton Info: Braxton loves Star Wars anything, but has yet to see the original movies. We'll have to rent them for him sometime.

Played at a friends house with chalk. I think they got more on them than anything else!

This is Braxton with his "special" friend, Aspen. They met when her family lived here for a year. He thought she was very cute from the first day he saw her. I remember the day he came home and told me about her. After several months of living here, she decided the feeling was mutual, and lets just say, Jenny and I had alot of playdates in the couple of months before they moved. These two still keep in contact by email.

First day of 1st grade

Halloween 2008- Jack Sparrow, the pirate

An interesting snowman....

Like I said, Big Star Wars Fan

This is a classic picture of Braxton teasing. I'm not sure who took this pic, but this is definitely Braxton in action. He can be quite the onery instigator at times!

Gathering his hoard from a pinata bust!

First day of 2nd Grade

Braxton Info: Braxton is such a people person. He is also very versatile. As a result, he can play individually with anyone of his brothers and sisters. He just becomes whatever he needs to be depending on who he is with. It has resulted in him having special relationships with each of them. It's very important to him that everyone feel included.I love it

This is an outfit that Braxton, John, and I designed for a project at school. His cape and front read " C.K. The Green Machine"

Braxton playing with two of his cousins, Bryce and Braden, who were all born the same year, at our family reunion this summer. They have a lot of fun together.

So that is my amazing Braxton Kade Blomstedt, C.K. I am so grateful to have him in our family. He is so fun to be with one on one because he has such a strong imagination, and conversations are always interesting! He works hard and does exceptionally well in school, which I know will help him to achieve his goals, whatever they may be. One of Braxtons strongest attributes, which I haven't even mentioned is his budding little testimony. As a child he truly gave full meaning to me of the term "out of the mouths of babes". His greatest excitement for this birthday this year had nothing to do with presents. He was so ecstatic that he would be getting baptized and going to scouts. He is so excited to be an "official" member and do things of his own merit. For his cake this year, he said he wished we could make one that had a church building on one side, a temple on the other, and scriptures in the middle. I told him that was probably a little complicated for a cake, but a really neat idea nonetheless. I love his enthusiasm. It is inspiring. He is really a great kid and we love him!

Happy Birthday Brax!

Family Pictures

2010-01-02T19:01:00.011-07:00

During our Thanksgiving break, we went to Nebraska to be with family. My wonderful sister-in- law (Thank you Staci!) who is very skilled with her camera took these pics for us. I'll just let the pics suffice for the rest of this post!

Winter Fun- Sledding and Gingerbread Houses!

2009-12-29T07:43:00.006-07:00

We decided to make gingerbread houses as our Family home evening activity before Christmas. It was lots of fun for the kids. These pictures will give evidence as to why we let them make and eat their OWN. Some things should not be shared! Here is Kian about half way through and his face already has a good amount of frosting around the mouth!

Maybe licking the graham cracker makes it hold together better!

Ashlee worked very hard on her little house! Of course I think she sucked as much icing out of the bag as she put on her house!

Very intense work!

Even the older children do their share of licking! It's half the fun, right! Like I said, as long as everyone is eating their own creations, all is well.

JJ thought the table was a bit crowded apparently.

Camerons finished product, and he is clearly quite satisfied with his work.

And... this is Kian's finished product. Most of the house had already been consumed!

Ashlee is giving the thumbs up for taste! Her cute little house kept falling down so she decided to just start eating.

Tori's house, with porch and all!

Braxton's final outcome!

JJ's house was quite unique! He was uncharacteristically patient!

SLEDDING!

The day before Christmas eve we went sledding with some friends. It was freezing, but of course the kids didn't mind!

Kian

Ashlee

Cam

The Hill!!

JJ snowboarding!

Ashlee!

Braxton on his way back up!

Tori and some friends, Maddie and Kacie.

Braxton isn't holding this sled. The wind is just blowing that hard. BRRRRR!

What we've been up to....

2009-12-21T08:40:00.010-07:00

So, since the kids are on Christmas break, I thought that I would let them play as they wish so that I can catch up on some blogging! This decision will likely allow for a new story, or mess, to blog about! So here is what the kiddos have been up to in the last couple months! 1. Playing with Dad's paintings. This took place just before Thanksgiving. John had done a practice picture and then left it in the office( which does have a "child-lock" on it, by the way). The next afternoon I heard sounds coming from behind the closed doors of the office, so of course I ran to get the camera, and this is what I found. Kians' face says it all.

Here he is explaining what happened.

Here is the damage the oil paint did to him. It actually only takes about a day after you wash for all the color to fade off the skin.

and here is the damage the oil paint did to the carpet. It does not fade quite as easily as the skin. John went over it several times by hand and with the steam cleaner and you can still see it faintly unfortunately.

Here is the canvas which we had planned to actually keep with all the cute little foot print all over it, however Cameron decided to try his hand at it, literally, a couple days later and erased all those cute little prints. Sad.

2. Sleeping in strange( creative?) ways or places. On this particular night we took this picture of Ashlee since she was the only one sleeping in "normal fashion, although her head is at the foot of the bed and not exactly on the pillow!

Here is where we found Victoria. Yes, she actually got in Kians crib and went to sleep. Why? I have not the slightest clue, other than it probably just popped into her head and so she thought that she would try it, and since Kian had gone elsewhere, the opportunity was available!

Here is the view of Cameron on this same night. The boys built a fort on their bed and had apparently even snuck Kian down to join in the fun!

JJ and Braxton,and Mickey Mouse in the background there!

Funny stuff!

Here is another night we decided to break out the camera because it was just funny. Braxton is actually sleeping on one of their reading chairs, because as you see in the picture below, only so many people can fit in a twin bed, even when you are little people.

Once again, Kian had been sprung from his crib and joined his brothers for bedtime. And clearly, JJ was very excited about Christmas. It would probably be very humorous to leave a camera in the basement one night and see the funny things they do before bed!

The silly, but cute, boys!

3. Helped cook. I was in an extra nice mood this day or something and so I allowed them to "help" make the dumplings for Chicken and Dumplings. They had a lot of fun, so it was probably worth the clean-up. But only because it was a rare occurrence of course!

4. Opened, drank, and spilled 12 Kool-aid drinks that were for Braxton's last soccer game. Clearly the guilt is written all over him. Again after a good washing and 24 hours, the kid (Cameron) was virtually stain free.

The carpet was not so lucky, and still looks pretty much like this despite several different times and ways of washing. Can you say "carpet allowance" when it comes time to sell this place!

5. Color on ourselves and our brother( and the carpet of course, but I didn't even bother taking pictures of that.)

W thought we should at least make them clean up their mess. Never mind that JJ sat and let them do it!

6. Breaking lamps(Cameron did this while doing gymnastics in the family room) and glass coffee tables. Because of our momentary disbelief and loss of presence of mind, we do not have a picture to show of the glass table that was shattered in about the same place a few weeks before. Still not exactly sure how it happened. But it did. And we sent the kids away so that we could pick up the pieces. Again. We never get sick of this drill.....

7. Playing with toothpaste and smearing it all over beds and pillows (pictures are out of order as this first one is Kian running away after I'd taken a couple pics!)

8.Giving ourselves baths in sinks without moms prior knowledge( or permission, whatever that is). Ashlee had just crawled out of this sink while I got the camera. This is our small half bath on the main floor. She apparently enjoyed herself!

On the exact same day, I found Cameron here! He is watching TV while bathing in the kitchen sink. Where do they come up with this stuff? So the kids have been busy( this is seriously just a sampling of thing I had actually taken pictures of) and of course we have kept ourselves busy just keeping up with them( or rather, cleaning up after them!)

Halloween!.....and New Orleans!

2009-11-13T21:08:00.009-07:00

New Orleans, Louisiana November 1-5 2009

Here is JJ the morning that we left on the shuttle bus to the airport. He was already having a good time!

" New Orleans - Starring JJ!"

I love this kid!

Beautiful buildings in the French Quarter!

A wrap around porch on an apartment building that is probably 250+ years old

This was a very amusing moment. This man was playing as we walked by and he stopped and asked JJ to come here and told us to get out the camera. This is the picture John took. JJ's face is priceless. He would not make a good poker player. The man chatted with JJ for a moment and then had him " help" play a quick song for us!

JJ was obviously a bit uncomfortable but it definitely made for a lasting memory!

A little farther down the street we saw this car and then JJ was more than happy to pose!

JJ and his Dad at dinner. Clones!

When we were walking home from dinner on the second night, JJ found this newt on the sidewalk. He kept it for about 36 hours and then let it go in a bush where he had found another one. He was glad it would have a friend!

One day, JJ and I went to an aquarium which was very fun. JJ especially enjoyed the stingray touch pool!

Yes, I realize that everyone else posted their Halloween posts a week or more ago, but the day after Halloween John, JJ and I left to go to New Orleans, LA where John was attending a CME conference. John and I had decided that we don't like to be apart, so that I would try to join him whenever possible on these trips. We then thought that it would present a unique opportunity for one on one bonding time with our children from time to time. So, we started our new tradition with our oldest, JJ. It was a fun time and and there were some really old and beautiful buildings there. The French Quarter was a very cool thing to see (except Bourbon Street((appropriately titled by the way)) which was a very scary place even at 2:30 in the afternoon). For those of you who know JJ, it will make sense to you that he loved the music there! It seemed like no matter where we were there was music playing somewhere, and my JJ was dancing right along to the beat. John told him we probably should just get him a hat so he could join the rest of the entertainers! This is the kid who used to crawl to the dishwasher at 6 months old and bounce to the beat of the swishing! Rhythm is in his blood! The weather was sunshine and between 70 and 74 degrees the four days we were there. Perfect! We are of course very grateful to my wonderful mother-in-law for caring for our other kiddos at our house and for cleaning every edge and corner of my floors and even organizing some of my children's drawers! What a joy to come home to! She is awesome and we love her! So that is the explanation of why my Halloween blog post is happening in the middle of November!

Halloween 2009

I'm not sure why exactly, but once again some of these pics are out of order even though I tried to prevent that. Oh, well! We had a Star Wars theme among our boys this year. Kian was our YODA. I think this is him sending someone away after giving sage advice.

This is a clear expression of what he thinks about having a candy bucket in his hand!

Here is Miss Ashlee as Super-girl. So sweet and innocent!

She must be watching her older sister and picking up some attitude poses!

A classic super-girl pose!

A random moment caught-they love each other!

Something had made him upset, but I can't seem to remember what. I still thought the picture was too cute not to include. Kian has a great "pout face".

My Brax man who was Luke Skywalker along with Cameron.

Here are my skywalkers posing as if they had light sabers, because I wasn't brave enough-or maybe naive is a better word- to actually let them have light sabers to run about with while I was trying to get everyone dressed and ready. They were disappointed, but I was quite sure that would have ended with someone needing stitches. That seems to be the odds at our house.

Cam was really trying to get into character. He cracks me up!

It was fun to watch them bond over being the same thing for Halloween. That's the good stuff! I think Cameron really enjoyed feeling like an equal.

Tori did all of her own posing, I just kept pushing the button. She was enjoying herself and it is always fun to watch her personality. I ended up with at least 15 shots of her but only included a few here.

She was a princess (what else would she be! If the crown fits.....)

And finally my JJ. It seems a little strange for someone so sweet to portray someone who's not, but he was excited to play the part! He was Darth Vader to round out our Star Wars group.

With the mask and and voice box! We can't wait until next year!!

Pumpkins!!

2009-10-28T12:56:00.008-06:00

So this is the haul of pumpkins for carving fun this year! This has become an absolute must for the Halloween season at our house. John really enjoys it ( obviously it provides yet another creative outlet for him!) and so the kids have naturally followed suit. The pumpkins seem to be getting bigger every year.....

The cleaning out begins!

These are somewhat out of order(whoops) but this is John helping Cam get ready to poke out his outline.

Of course, half of the fun is just getting messy!

Kian joined in the messy fun too!

Here is Kian trying to put a picture on his pumpkin like he has seen the other kids doing and Mom is busy taking pics so she is not helping yet!
Tori showing us some pumpkin guts!

Here are the older kids punching out their patterns with dad's expert assistance!
I was lucky enough to get to "finish" removing the insides of most of the pumpkins! So now I will reveal the finished products! The kids pumpkins required adult help once they realized they had been a little ambitious in choosing their designs. They all gave it a really good effort though!

John did this one which was appropriately titled "Come Unto Me"
This was also Johns displaying the motto emblem for "Choose The Right"
This was Braxtons'(with some help!)

This was Victorias'(once again, with help!)
JJ completed his all on his own but there was some sadness when he accidentally cut out some areas that were supposed to remain intact. Not bad for doing it all on his own though!!
This was Camerons'(or Johns work, really, but Cam did pick out the pattern!
And this was Ashlees'! We never actually got around to carving Kians' pumpkin!

These are last years pumpkins I thought I would include in this post just for fun since we didn't have a blog last year to display them!

Looking forward to next year already!

Seriously???

2009-10-23T11:46:00.000-06:00

I am going to preface this by saying that I wish these were unlikely occurrences at our house, but the truth of the matter is I was just finally so fed up that I decided I needed to take pictures for documentation. These two particular events that I have pictures for happened three days apart. I remember that JJ, Tori and Braxton went through a stage where they used to get all the boxes of wipes in the house and get on their top bunk and and pull them apart one by one and throw them to the ground below or go to the playroom where I had efficiently organized their toys into bins( cars w/cars, barbies and acc., puzzles w/ all there pieces, Etc.) and dump them all together into the middle of the room and then leave,as if that was the end of the game. Apparently it was. Annoying! It seems as though the younger group are trying their hand at this phase now and I just feel like I can not keep up. I'm not really sure what the answer is. Yes, they had to sit in time out and Yes, they had to help to clean up the mess. They even lost an opportunity to go to the Park for the second occurrence and we had a talk about what are other things that we can do if we are bored and need something to do. Cameron actually said to me when questioned about why they made that huge mess, " Well, we could not find you and so we decided to dump everything." Seriously???? For the record I was dealing with a an issue with ALL of my older children in the basement that took longer than expected. I guess it was to be expected, although I would really like to think that it is possible for them to do activities that are not destructive when left alone for 15 minutes. Is that an unrealistic expectation? O.K. at this point I am clearly rambling on about my frustrations so I will post the evidence. Unfortunately these pictures can not completely show the scope of the damage.
This is actually the second event but it posted first. The contents of the pile include,to name a few things, clean laundry( about 3 loads) dirty laundry ( yes I had to rewash some of the previously clean stuff since some of the dirty laundry was wet-enough said-?)random dishes, shoes, blankets, toys, and what you may not be able to clearly see is that an entire bag of fruit loops was thrown all over the room.

Ironically,or maybe not, I had cleaned the main level that afternoon.

Event #2 occurred in the girls bedroom just a few days before. Once again,ironically, or not, I had been doing a "mom" clean of the upstairs and was in my room finishing up when this happened. It is just not nearly as satisfying to organize bins and drawers the second time in the same day. UUUUGGGGHHHH!!

May I never have a post like this again. (Yeah, right!)

He still impresses me....

2009-10-11T06:59:00.000-06:00

These are the latest of Johns' paintings.

It is interesting to me that it took this long for him to discover this beautiful talent of his! He's always been artistic, but his level of ability with oil painting for someone whose never done it before is pretty amazing in my opinion!

Many more to come..........

I am very behind on my blogging so I am hoping to make up for it by frequently blogging throughout the next week or so! We'll see how that goes!

Cams' Preschool ( and other happenings!)

2009-09-09T13:43:00.000-06:00

Today Cameron joined the world of preschool. He had been very excited and had asked most every day of the 3 1/2 weeks that the older kids have been in school if it was his turn to start school yet. There had been lots of smiles and jumping and squeal's of delight from him in preparation for this event. Then today arrived. I had to wake him up this morning at 8, which was strange since he usually is awake between 6:30 and 7. I reminded him that this was the day he would get to start as he was opening his eyes. Things got very serious from that point on. " I need to get dressed now.", he says to me. So we get him dressed and then he explains that he doesn't feel like eating breakfast. I told him he needed " brain food" for preschool and that we can't go until he eats something, so he agrees to eat a banana. I wanted to get some pictures before we left and He was unable to smile very much for those as well. This preschool stuff was serious business to him, like a right of passage, placing him in the "big kids" group at home! The above picture really captures these feelings. Check out the body language!

Here is Cam entering the building, still no smiles.....

...entering the classroom without even a "Hello" to the teachers or goodbye to Kian and I( It's a good thing we were following him in!)

and sitting on the rug ready for things to get started( too bad he was the first one there!)

Now he is listening to the teacher greet him. I asked for a hug before I go and he runs at me like a football player in attack mode and just about Knocks me over! I receive a very aggressive bear hug and kiss and then it's back to business. So Funny!

And here he is right after coming out of the classroom eager to show me the paper he is to give me. Very Serious stuff!

In other news, we spent 3 days in the hospital last week with Kian. He caught a virus that went to his lungs and he was having great difficulty breathing. That was quite an adventure figuring out what to do with the kids while John was at work and I was at the hospital. We are grateful to some wonderful friends who came to the rescue (Thanks Kelly and Stacy!) Cameron even got to go to work with Dad on Thursday which he very much enjoyed!

Kian getting a breathing treatment one morning after we were home.

On Labor Day we were sitting around trying to think of a way to entertain the kids. John decided that since so many of them had been asking to paint, we should just do it, and do it BIG!

This is the kids painting in the garage. I love this picture for how much it shows. We have Ashlee in the background who has already painted on both sides of the paper and is just staring to stick her hands in the paint ( more on that to come), Cameron who is actually catching a bug on the cement, Kian is painting on the garage floor, Tori is giving out some kind of directions or command to Braxton who is paying her no attention, and JJ has a look on his face that tells you exactly what he thinks about whatever Tori is saying ( i know it is sort of hard to see when the pic is so small.)

Tori takes artwork very seriously as you can tell. She took her time and drew a beautiful , distinguishable, picture.

Braxton and Kian were very quiet most of the time and had lots of fun together.

JJ seemed to find it hard to sit even though he was enjoying himself. I love that he made himself a "palette" with all those colors, and then pretty much only used black.

And then there is Cam and Ashlee who exhibited what preschool painting is all about... hands (and feet) on messiness!!

This is about when the real fun started!

Cam about to dip his foot in Braxtons' paint.

Ashlee making hand prints.....

and footprints....

And the finished product!!! ( notice that Tori is still painting her sweet little picture despite the chaos around her!

Ashlee after the fun! We got out the hose to clean off the participants and a water fight began between John and the boys. It was a great way to finish the activity!

Shave and a Haircut.....

2009-08-30T18:57:00.000-06:00

Cameron got his very own shaving kit for his birthday from our sweet friends, Kevin and Alexa. He absolutely loved it! As it turned out, so did most of the other kids. They were trying to work out deals or trades to get their turn to "shave". They were pretty much all shot down because Cameron wanted it to last for a long time, and let's be honest, he was really enjoying this power and control he was feeling! The kit was put in Mom and Dads bathroom for safe keeping, which is where I found Ashlee on the day of this photo shoot! Every picture, though hysterical to me, also elicits incredible gratitude in my heart that this was not a real razor! I took this pictures of her in action and she was not even phased by my presence. This post could also be labeled "Top 5 reasons why Ashlee should NEVER shave!

#1- it is hard to see in the picture, but she is pressing hard enough that she is indenting her cheek...

#2-Eyes? Need I even comment on this one?...

#3- the lips... That would definitely not be pretty....

#4-I accidentally put this pic on twice which means I missed the one with the shaving of the nose....

#5- we can't forget the throat and again she is seriously pressing hard!

A day or two later, in the same bathroom I might add, another event took place. This would be the momentous first haircut for Kian. I had been putting this off since I love his curls so much and was very afraid that after his haircut they would be all but gone. But, alas, it was time to even things up and shape it a bit since it was starting to take on a mullet shape. This gives an idea of how long it was down his back. So we did the haircut and saved most of the 1 1/2 inch pieces that we cut off. We only took video at that point so there are no stills of the action.

But here he is afterwards still smiling(sort of!)!

And the curls remain!!! Yeah!!!

Painting!

2009-08-30T18:26:00.000-06:00

John has been doing some more painting which has seemed to be a great stress reliever for him. He really enjoys it( when he's not frustrated that things are not turning out exactly as he pictured!) I have been trying to take pictures of each of his canvas's as he finishes them. Since some of them are just "practice." Kian had been watching and trying to help John with some of his paintings. John had finished this one about an hour before and I had not yet taken a picture of it. John had not been happy with it and left it in the office. We were getting things ready for bed when I walked down the hall to see this (thankfully the camera was close by!)

My first thought was that John had scribbled over it since it was not "perfect", though I thought that was a little out of character for him. Then I saw Kian and the brush, and he said, "see I paint."

Here is the close up of the damage. Thank goodness it was a practice picture!

This is John cleaning his easel which he was much more concerned with than the painting.

This is actually his most recent one and for some reason when I was uploading it, it was put on in this slot. Anyway, it is definitely my personal favorite so far!

and, this is one that he did a few weeks ago that has a little more " spring in the air!" We are all enjoying watching him paint. The kids are eagerly awaiting their turn. Tori even convinced him to buy her some canvas when they were on a daddy/daughter date yesterday. She has some beguiling ways, that girl does! Stay tuned for more to come!

ummmm.... a not-so-brief summary?

2009-08-22T06:56:00.000-06:00

Well, in the craziness of life these past few weeks, I have kept a small list of thing that I wanted to blog about, as I consider this to be our family "journal". This is a picture of Cameron's B'day cake, decorated of course, by our resident artist, John. Cam turned 4 on August 10th and he has told me for almost a year that what he wanted for his birthday was a pinata.

So, this is a picture of the pinata after a few whacks when we realized that we hadn't taken a picture of it yet!

Here is Cameron in action! The stick broke before the pinata so we had to move on to a junior golf club. We were a little nervous, but thankfully no one was injured! Eventually the pinata gave in to the thrashing and the looting began!

It was a fun evening with our family and our friends the Galbraiths, and Cam was a happy kid!

My 15 year old brother Jake came for two weeks to hang out with us and the time really flew by! It was such a great experience to really get to know eachother and even more fun to discover how very much alike we are! The kids definitely appreciated having someone else around to play with. We did lots of fun things to try and keep him entertained. We went to one of the local museums and then out to lunch at BW3'S one day. That was quite the adventure!

3 of the boys using jake as a chair after they mummy rolled him

Funny moments!

We obviously had to take Jake to the Beach so that he could see that. That was also a really fun day. We were minus John, who had to work, so that was sad, but the weather was perfect! This is a picture of Cam doing a dance and if this picture were bigger you would be able to see the look on that girls face. It is very amusing.

Kian did not venture into the water, but had a good time on the sand.

a great candid of Uncle Jake and the 4 oldest kids!

Braxton

I was taking a picture of Ashlee and Kian and due to the camera delay and the bright sun, I was not aware I had caught this picture until we got home. It is Ashlee in the act of dumping an entire bag of crackers! She had earlier dropped a couple of the crackers, and was very excited when the seagulls flew very close to retrieve these! So, naturally, it would seem logical to dump the entire bag and have lots of seagull friends, right!? Exactly!

Camera scope, and once again, delay, did not allow me to catch the moment in it's fullness, but needless to say, she had many seagulls come to visit and she quickly began trying to catch one!

Tori being buried

Cam having his turn!

We went to Warren Dunes so that Jake could have a chance to climb the massive sand dune. Here is everyone starting the climb!

Jakey and Kian at the top!

Jakey and Kian back down at the bottom. Whew!

After Jake left for home we had one week left before school to entertain ourselves so I took the kids to the park a couple of those days so they could soak up the outdoors before they would be spending the majority of their days indoors! We had a few bumps and bruises, sadly but I did not take pictures.This is Kian at the top of a very big slide.

Ashlee on the monkey bars...very appropriate for our little monkey!

Kian taking chances!

The older kids after spending 45 minutes at a skate park with their skate shoes!

THE FIRST dAY OF SCHOOL

And so, the summer ended and the day arrived to begin another school year! This is my Ashlee in a dead run for the school bus as she was to begin her first day of Kindergarten. She was VERY excited!

Kian wanted to have his moment in front of the camera!

JJ Tori and Brax

Braxton, Tori, and Ashlee( the scab on the nose gives you an indication of some of the park induced ouchies!)

Braxton and Cam having a sweet moment! School has begun!!!

Is there anything he can't do?

2009-08-06T05:41:00.001-06:00

A couple of weekends ago John decided to try his hand at oil painting, something he has talked about for years. We had seen a starter kit at Hobby Lobby that had the basics you would need, ie:paint, some brushes, an informational DVD,etc. So we bought the kit and one canvas and waited about three months to find a weekend when there wasn't 6 thousand things going on, and that weekend finally came!

The kids were pretty excited about this as well, so he had lots of company to start! When it was finally time for bed they wanted to be sure that the painting would still be in the house in the morning, and that he wouldn't be giving it away over night. The funny things that kids worry about!

It took him about 2 1/2 hours from the time he brought everything to the counter until clean up was complete. Not bad for a maiden voyage. As it turns out, he VERY much enjoyed himself and it seems he has another hobby. I love to watch him do things that make him so happy. Of course, the perfectionist side of him was frustrated throughout the process and at the end as I sat in awe and watched the picture develop before my eyes. How many people can watch a DVD and essentially repeat the process simultaneously? Not me, anyway. He has always been an artist at heart.

So Golf and Oil painting. John clearly has expensive taste in his hobbies! It would seem noteworthy to mention that we have since purchased 9 more canvas( they happened to be 50% of last week) more brushes and paint (thank you EBAY) and a few additional supplies. Let the fun, and the masterpieces, begin!!

Ouch!!

2009-07-31T18:43:00.001-06:00

The picture doesn't show very clearly, but this is blisters all across Camerons' four fingers and the top of his palm. He touched the exhaust on the lawn mower. This was actually taken this morning so it looks a lot better than it did yesterday after it happened. He cried for about 3 hours and wouldn't let me get more than a few inches away from him. I felt so bad for the little guy and wished I could take away his pain. He finally passed out at about 5:45 pm and slept through the night. That was a blessed thing! This morning he woke up and said, " Mom, it's all better now!" I'm so glad he is not hurting anymore!

Curls!!

2009-07-31T18:33:00.000-06:00

I thought that after the previous post,I should present my baby in a good light. We took these pictures two sundays ago after I put some gel on those curls of his. I'm pretty much a sucker for this boy and his hair. He is two now and has never had a haircut yet. Even my girls had had trims by this point! It's probably time for a little trim, but I am really holding out hope that he retains the curl!

So sweet and innocent ( most of the time((see previous post!)) I am in love!!

Peaches and Peanut Butter

2009-07-31T18:16:00.001-06:00

So the house was pierced this evening with a yell from Tori announcing," oh, my gosh, mom, Kian is in so much trouble, you are not going to be happy!" And so, on my way to the scene of the crime, I grabbed my camera. This is what I discovered.

I'm not sure this is remorse. I think it is frustration for having to sit for the pictures.

The peanut butter was artfully smeared in the curio's and also into the carpet. The 8 or 9 peaches were half eaten and smashed into the carpet as well.

" Ummmm, I think I'm supposed to say this will never happen again?" Let's hope so. Peaches and peanut butter... interesting and sticky combination.

Popsicles

2009-07-18T16:50:00.000-06:00

So, on Thursday night we decided to let the kids have a Popsicle before bed. I recall asking JJ or Tori to go and get some out of the deep freezer for everyone, as always with the automatic and gentle reminder to please make sure the freezer door is shut. There have been a few times in the past when they haven't given it quite enough pressure and then it is left open a tiny bit, causing the freezer to run extra hard to retain the temperature. Apparently they were busy and so the job got sent down the ranks. It is not known who actually retrieved the Popsicles, but most likely it was our Ashlee or Cameron. It was not until the next morning( Friday) when Braxton comes upstairs to wake me up saying, " Dad needs your help unloading the freezer." I knew this was not good and it actually immediately occurred to me what had probably happened. When I came downstairs, this is what I saw. At first I'm thinking to myself , well, maybe the freezer was just left open slightly and maybe most of it is still frozen. But sadly, this was not the case. A few of the freezer jams, a package of hamburgers, a bag of vegetables and some sliced onions, all of which were lining the very back of the freezer were the only things that were mostly frozen. These things were transferred to a cooler because there was absolutely no room in the freezer in the house. That is what makes the story even more fun! You see, we had been gone on vacation for two and a half weeks and you can't leave much in the fridge and expect it to survive that long. So we had to seriously restock upon returning home. I, for one, do not find grocery shopping with children to be that enjoyable,especially during these wonderful summer months when I have to take all six of them! That being said, when we do make these crazy trips to the store, I buy as much as I can, in hopes of delaying the next trip. So, I had stocked up at Walmart the previous weekend and then on Wednesday I had taken the crew to Sams Club to get the Frozen stuff and such. I should have been good to go for a while! But that is when tragedy struck. John said that when he went out to the garage in the morning, the freezer door was opened all the way! That is why not much was able to stay frozen. Because it continued to run all night and it wasn't too hot, a lot of things were still cold and therefore safe to eat, that is if we could actually consume it that fast. So John said, " Figure out a menu for the next three days that will use this stuff and find a way to keep it cold.",then gave me a kiss and was on his way to work. I began to shift things in my fridge to try and fit anything that I could in there and the words of a wise friend and experienced blogger came to my mind, "Always take pictures!" Thank you Kelly!! And so I did, quickly, and then puzzle packed things where I could. I had a box of thirty corn dogs and TWO Sams size pkgs. of chicken nuggets that were too big to fit anywhere, the ultimate in kid fare. The thought struck me, " Why not call up some friends with little kids and tell them I've got lunch at my house today?" And so that is what I did! There were about 10 or 11 women and well over 20 children running around by noon. We had a very fun impromptu lunch and everyone got a good laugh at the events that inspired our meeting. I ended up only having to throw out about 7 things, so it could have been a lot worse in the end. Now at least I have some fun memories with friends to tie with it!

We took the opportunity to let our freezer thaw out and left only the Popsicles in the bottom. We have also, naturally, instated the binding rule that only the adults are allowed to open the freezer door. We'll see how long that lasts.....

Family Reunions 2009!

2009-07-13T13:41:00.000-06:00

Who could resist this face?

JJ's golf shot. Not bad.... must take after his dad!

Ashlee and her Aunt Manda. Sweet.

This giant tortoise was like116 years old! Very Cool!

I think she's got a pretty good hold there (of his heart at least!)

Cams amazing tricks never end! He was very insistant I take lots of pictures.

Look at this take-off!

Another pic that was to good not to post! This is John in Ashlees' glasses. Very Nice!

On a geo caching adventure. Cam feels very important to be holding the package!

An attempt at catching a shot of most of the little people in Glenwood Springs.

Kian loving his uncle Jakob. Aaaaawwwww!

This was how the kids passed out on the fourth of July in our room! Very similiar to how they sleep at home actually. I'll blog about that another time!

John got lots of snuggles at the park for the fireworks since he had the blanket!

Tori and her Daddy

Tori and a baby calf. So sweet.

JJ spent an hour and a half in this pen with the baby goats and lambs. He was in Heaven!

Kian thinks this chick is pretty amazing!

Me and my little ones in a cave 50 feet undergroud. It was so awesome!

This was the cousins in a candid shot crawling around on the MT. Rushmore grounds!

John may kill me for posting this shot but it is so classic! This was him hitting some balls in the field across from the cabin after taking the kids swimming, thus the swim shorts and lack of a shirt. I came out and had to get the camera!! Love it!!!

A rainy evening at Mt. Rushmore! That made it all the more memorable!

JJ's turn with the giant!

Brax and the giant tortoise

Appearantly our " baby "is getting to big for a

stroller now. Kinda sad.

Cam checking out a baby alligator

The kids in front of Chimney Rock.

Well I have decided that it is time to update. I'm actually a little upset because before we left on vacation there were at least two specific events that I wanted to blog about, but between packing for 8 people for two-plus weeks of vacation and also cleaning so that my house would be ready for any showings while we were gone, let's just say that blogging did not make it onto my list of priorities. And now, sadly, I can not remember what was so funny, that I wanted to share it. Word to the wise people: Write things down immediately. Memories fade all to quickly. So another lesson learned!
Now, on to the recent events that I am still lucky enough to have full recollection of. As I mentioned we left on June 24th and headed to our first stop which was Gma and Gpa's house in Hershey NE. We left as soon as John finished work at 6pm and drove through the night ( the sleep deprivation is totally worth the peace and quiet in the car as the children sleep with happy dreams of running around with cousins for the next two weeks!) We spent the weekend at Johns' parents house with ALL of the siblings and their families. It was quite an adventure! We had planned a family picture on Sat and that actually went fairly smoothly. I wish I could include one of those shots ,but I still have yet to see them myself! It was so wonderful to be together as an entire group and we made plans to try and make it happen again in 3 years.

On Monday morning we headed with some of the group to Mount Rushmore in SD. On the way we saw Chimney Rock. We were very pleased with our chosen campground in the area called Rushmore Shadows Resort. We saw alot of fun stuff, though not everything we would have liked to. With 14 kids under the age of 10 in tow between the buch of us, we sort of had to tailor the sight seeing events accordingly. We will definitely go back someday. The Black Hills area is so beautiful!

On Fri day july 3rd we loaded up at about 5 in the morning and drove to Denver where we met up with my brother, Bret, and his family. We got to see their house and and then we caravanned the rest of the way to Glenwood Springs with them. In Glenwood Springs we met up with several of my siblings and their families. We had a great time there also, seeing some of the local sights and going Geo-caching. This area is gorgeous as well and definitely worth a visit!

Funny Pics

2009-06-02T07:55:00.000-06:00

Tori and Kian. This picture cracks me up!

Ashlee and her pre-school teacher

Cam and the paci's. This picture says it all.

JJ being a clown. He enjoys entertaining others.

These are our household superheroes. You can see they take this very seriously.
Just some cute pictures since I didn't have any to back up my post!

And so it begins......

2009-06-02T06:52:00.000-06:00

Well, we've decided that it is time to jump on this bandwagon called blogging. I've always shoved the idea off as something that sounded fun but that I didn't have time for, but yet I've managed to find a little time to look at others' blogs and thought it was so neat to get an "inside glimpse". I've also decided that if I don't start writing down some of the crazy stuff that goes on here on a daily basis, then either I'm going to forget a large portion of it, or the kiddos may not believe us as adults when we tell them how onery, I mean spirited and energetic they were!
Take for example some recent events. John has been finishing our basement ceiling in an effort to sell the house. One afternoon while Ashlee and Cameron were playing in the basement, they managed to find some spray adhesive that John had been using the night before that was dyed red. The carpet that we laid in our basement is a light cream color with beige flecks. Needless to say that the red graffitti that was all over did not blend in well. We had to go through a few different chemicals to find the one that would remove the adhesive aspect and then hire a professional service to get out the red. There went a months worth of gas money. Obviously, we were praying that we would not get a call for a showing until we resolved this situation, and such was the case. I wish that I had pictures, but sadly, I think we were too worried about whether or not we were even going to be able to get it out to even think about immotalizing it in photos.
The weekend after we had the carpets cleaned the kids were playing with bubbles. Such a simple and relatively cheap distraction that can sometimes keep kids interested for quite a while. Cheap , until the three year old decides to see if the bottle can be flushed down the toilet. The answer of course, is that the bottle can go down, but thanks to the seeminly perfect size and shape for this tunnel ,along with the fact that it is hard plastic, nothing else can go down afterwards until Mr Rooter can be hired to come and completely pull up the entire toilet and try to remove said problem, all the while telling you that it is possible it will not be able to be removed in which case the entire toilet would need to be replaced. I'm thinking,"are you kidding? All this over a 79 cent container of bubbles?" Thankfully he was successful and it it only cost a little over $200 dollars for this adventure. We won't be buying small containers of bubbles anymore.
There are swirling in my head many other stories that will have to wait for another time. Suffice it to say I'm sure If I can manage to keep up, I will have no shortage of fun things to blog about!