OUCH!!!

Sometimes you just have to bite your tongue .....

Like when one of your daughters uses your entire thing of eyeliner to turn one of your other daughters into a lion ....

For a little play called "Daniel and the Lion's Den"

Pass of all passes! & Prayer

My sister called and told me to get the deal of the Century ... so I did! (Well I don't think its as good of a deal as Paul and Serena's all you can fly for $500 - but I can't afford that so this had to be the deal)

For $34.95 we got a season pass to:

2 different Trafalga locations - mini-golf, roller-coaster, laser tag, bumper boats, go-karts
2011 7-peaks pass - waterpark
owlz games - not sure exactly what sport they play but its all good
flash games - indoor arena football

Anyway, we went last night and the kids had a blast.  To make sure we get good use out of these passes they will be used for weekends, holidays, date nights, and family nights.
________________________________________Yesterday, we "thought" Jacob had a soccer game at 5:30 which meant we needed to leave the house by 4:15, but he doesn't get off the bus until 3:45 or 3:50.  He walked in the door and I told him to run up to get ready for his game.  A little while later he came down and told me his jersey wasn't in his soccer bag, so I told him some other places to look.  He looked in those places so I told him some other places to look.  He looked and looked and then I started looking. 

Of course I got grumpy at him that it wasn't where it was supposed to be. (The kids like to hide the laundry I so neatly wash and fold for them - it's a conspiracy, I swear!  I can't count the times I have found folded laundry in my dirty laundry baskets.)  Back to the story, I enlisted the help of the rest of the family and told them to hurry b/c it was getting really close to the time we had to leave.  Meanwhile, Jacob says okay I am going to say a prayer. 

Being the good mother, that I am, we continue to go about our business of searching while Jacob kneels in Prayer.  At the same time he comes back into the room, Hailey comes down the stairs with his jersey in tow.  It, of course, was in his soccer bag, where it rightfully belonged and where we had already looked twice.

Prayer works - next time I will stop and join him instead of being in a hurry.

Then last night he could not find his pass of all passes at the end of the night.  I was gathering them all up for safe keeping.  I, of course, scolded him and told him to retrace his steps and go find it.  (I don't like the pattern I'm seeing here)

He set off on his way and came right back with it.  He had said a prayer that he would be able to find it quickly and so he did. 

I know that prayer works but sometimes it is the last thing that I think of for the trivial things.  I am so glad I have such wonderful kids to teach me of its power.  Lesson Learned!

He's getting a lot better at walking.  It is so fun to watch!

Gratitude

I love learning new things. Ask anyone -- I am constantly talking about my next great idea or business. This love of learning is what took me to Education Week, and the fact that my husband so graciously surrendered his time for babysitting. While there I took a class by Sheri Dew about leadership.

She mentioned that for about a year she had been reading a conference talk a day and what a difference that had made in her life. I thought, hey I can do that! It is especially easy now that I have such easy access to the Internet on my phone. So I started that week and after a little bit decided that I might as well post them on my LDS blog that I had started a few years ago. I am proud to say that I have stuck to my reading goal but missed a few blogging days on the weekend.

Anyway, for the last week the thought keeps creeping into my head that I needed to post the link to the blog on Facebook. I kept mentioning this to my husband but was worried about starting a religious debate on Facebook. I am not sure why or for what purpose I am supposed to share the blog but I knew I was supposed to because I kept getting a prompting. I struggled with how to introduce the link so as not to create any debating or mockery.

Because I had that on my mind I was on Blogger a lot yesterday and noticed a tab for stats. It was so fun to check out how many views I had and where they were coming from.

I was so happy to see that someone was actually looking! and from other countries! It gave me new found determination to reach my goals.

And today I even got a **comment! - It was from my brother but still! Excitement!





** Okay I have received many emails, especially from my wonderful mother-in-law, but this was the first comment on the actual blog & it just sounded more dramatic! :-)

I'm in LOVE!!!

I know your thinking cheesy right? Yeah, yeah we know you love your husband. That is most definitely true but that is not the source of my new found love. I got me a Shark!!

Last month when I was in Texas my sister-in-law whips out this handy dandy machine and I knew I was destined to have it.



Mopping is my least favorite of ALL chores! Give me a toilet any day but hand me a mop and ugh! I have tried lots of things over the years to try and simplify my life and nothing has really stuck. I usually resort to hands and knee and a rag. It's just easier but not easier on my knees. I have a big table and it is no fun to crawl around under it. With 7 kids there is always a mess to be cleaned!

Most recently I had tried the Swiffer wet-jet. It showed promise until it left streaks all across my floor and the cost can get expensive. We easily go through a $5 bottle of cleaner in two moppings. My husband, the resourceful man he is, even poked a hole in the top and filled it with our own homemade cleaner but then when we didn't use the entire bottle in one mopping it left a puddle when the kids inevitably knocked the mop over. Oops!

Anyway I can't say enough good things about this little machine. Lightweight, easy to use, only had to use a scraper to 1 spot on the floor, cut my job time in half! What more can I say? I had even thought I could get an affiliate agreement (they pay me to sell their product) and start a website with me mopping up a new spill everyday like an infomercial. It wouldn't be hard to find a mess in my house. We have many a cup of spilled milk around here!

Carthage

I LOVE Carthage. There is definitely a Spirit here. The kids can all feel it too. I love the Prophet Joseph Smith and have a strong testimony of him as a Prophet and of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that was restored to the Earth through him.

The door to the room. Hyrum was killed through these shots.


This is in the room where the martyr happened. This is not the window that Joseph fell from.


Jacob & Caleb


Caleb had his own tour. We stayed away from the tour group b/c he was a little noisy and we didn't want to take away from any one's experience. I actually loved wandering around alone with Caleb. He enjoyed it too as you can tell!


LOVE this picture. This is out in the hall but the imagery is still powerful.


Jacob, Caleb and Christina outside of the jail.


Group shot in the upstairs cell. It was in here where Willard Richards hid John Taylor, who was shot, which saved his life.


Hailey Grace


Christina and Caleb

First Day of School

Amber and Danny are out the door before anybody else is up.

Danny starting 8th grade

Amber 7th Grade

Jacob 5th Grade

2nd group of kids off for the day.

Hailey 3rd Grade

Savannah 1st grade

Nauvoo

I don't have any great pictures of all of us together but we tried!

The kids loved the oxen ride. They take you in a circle and then let you pet the oxen.


I love that the Nauvoo Temple is re-built.



I took this picture of Christina with the kids....


and then we switched places ;) Great family shot! But wait, , , where's Jake?


Savannah & Katie w/ Oxen

The girls loved the pioneer village and dressing up!



My boys!


Nanny and Papa joined us on our trip!


We loved having Christina join us on our trip!


and David and Maren's family!



During the pageant they have the actors put on vignettes throughout town. It was so fun to imagine seeing Joseph and Emma walking around town. We just wished they would have no parking in front of the mansion house for the picture.


Danny really loves his brother! I have a lot of pictures with these two.


I was writing a big long explanation of our trip and it was getting too long with too many words. I still might post it later but it was getting long. We had a great trip but I won't lie and say it wasn't hard w/o Dan there. He really is something special and helps sooo much! Thanks for letting us leave you home working. We love you! We missed you and Amber.

I've started working on my profile. I love this new concept!

Hill Cumorah Pageant

A few months ago a member of our Bishopric mentioned that our family should consider applying to be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant. I told him they don't want families like mine with all these little kids. He assured me that we were exactly what they were looking for. At the time I thought there is no way my family, especially Dan, would ever go for that but I brought it up that night at Family Night. To my surprise everyone said yes and were excited about it!

I looked it up and found out that you apply August 15th through mid-October. It has been interesting throughout the summer... It seems like I run into people everywhere who have been in the pageant and tell me what a great experience it is. Before this year the only person I had met who had been in the pageant was the member of our Bishopric.

August 15th came and I got on that day and applied for our family to be in the pageant. That day I got an automated response stating that I should receive a signature page to take to our Bishop within 24 hours. Well 24, 48, and 73 hours went by without receiving this signature page. I was beginning to wonder if we were just out of the picture or if our application was lost in cyberspace.

I looked up a number on the website and called. I was able to talk with the director David Broadbent who made me even more excited for this experience. We talked about Zion's Camp (which is where most but not all of the families stay while there) He told me they can only fit 56 families in so the other families have to look for other alternatives. I told him how big my family is and he said that is good news because it moves us up on the priority list. Great News.

Also, he told me they are having a lot of technical issues so the application procedure is being delayed. I asked if there was anything we could do to enhance our chances of making it. I told him that I didn't put down any talents because we sing in church but aren't professionals or anything.

He said that because we have a large family it increases our chances. Also, he said being a leader and being willing to be a leader are the main thing that they look at. He said the mere fact that we said we'd be willing to be over a cast group was a strong positive for us. He said to write an email gushing about us and listing our leadership experience.

We are excited! If we get in we hope some of our family will come watch!