Merry Christmas to you...

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas? I hope so. It was great here. Nice not to have to drive anywhere, and just stay home and enjoy the family. I will share pics later. Until then....I have added a new blog to my bloglist. I can't even remember how I found it. But I do remember the blog name caught my attention , and I just had to visit. My name is Brayden and my Dad's a Mexican. How could anyone pass that up? Turns out, it's a blog written by a third grade teacher, and this is where she shares all the funny that happens. If you are a teacher, a Mom, or human, you will laugh out loud. Check it out. It will provide laughs to help pull you through the post-Christmas blues!

Merry Christmas Adam!

Do you know my sister? She is the self proclaimed funniest person in the world. I agree. Tonight, she told me "Merry Christmas Adam!". I was like ????. She said "Adam came before Eve, so Merry Christmas Adam!" What a funny girl. Makes me smile.

And, just so I have this written down.....I vow that next year I will have my Christmas shopping completely done by December 10th. I will not shop 2 days before Christmas. I won't! Traffic today STUNK. Next year at this time, I will be relaxing and enjoying my family, not driving on ice covered roads and stuck in horrible holiday traffic. You are all my witnesses. Don't let me forget this!

Baby, it's cold outside!!!!

You know why they call these magic gloves? Because one of them will inevitably dissapear (just like socks). At our house, we have about 15 lonely little magic gloves withour a buddy. Lucky for me, my kids aren't too picky about having gloves that match, cause when the tempurature is in the single digits day after day after day, you just want something to cover your hands. Fashion goes right out the window at this point.
It has been snowing everyday since Friday. The first couple of days it was fun. Even for a snow-disliker like me, the anticipation of the first "real" snow is exciting and fun. Now, I'm ready for April. Seriously. I am not a fan of driving on icy roads. I guess most people don't that, but I am so over having my heart pounding out of my chest while I drive 20 miles an hour down the road. If my husband is home, I make him drive me everywhere. Call me a wimp if you must.
Now that I'm done complaining (thanks for staying tuned) I will share our FHE from last Monday. I got the idea from The McIllece Spot. Well, I didn't have a can, so I just used a gift bag, and did "FHE in a bag". It was a hit! The kids loved it. I did mine a little differently. I took a little tree (perfect size for a table centerpiece), and as I talked about each symbol, the kids took turns putting ornaments (that represented the symbol) on the tree. We are keeping it on our table so the kids can look at it, and hopefully remember the lesson and the true meaning of Christmas.





There were more pictures, but most of them had me in them, and I did NOT look fabulous. So, you'll just have to trust me when I say, It was a successful FHE. And at our house, that is great.

BTW, it's snowing...again. Stupid weather.com said it would be a clear day today. Not so much.

Christmas Tag and New blog

My sil, Melanie, tagged me for a Chritmas tag. So, here goes.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? As soon as I can get away with it
4. When do you take the tree down? January (once Febuary)
5. Do you like eggnog? Not so much a fan
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Legos
8. Easiest person to buy for? females
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Several- I collect them
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. My intentions are always good, but I never get them sent!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? really can't remember
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story-"Deck the halls with boughs of horry, fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, ra-ra-ra-ra" lol!
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Day after Thanksgiving
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? everything
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, it's pre-lit
17. Favorite Christmas song? Mary's Lullaby
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? yes- even Donder!
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open pajamas on Christmas Eve and everything else on Christmas morning.
22. Favorite Christmas Tradition? Cory cooks the dinner!
23. Favorite ornament, theme or color? All of my nativity ornaments
24. Favorite Christmas dinner? Rib eye roast, cooked by Cory
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? (big surpise) For our house in Twin to sell.

So, there you have it! I tag Wendy and Marci and Ashlee and Montay and Lynn and Bonnie and anyone else who wants to play.

Now, if you want to get your craft on, check out this new blog. My sil, Melanie (same one that tagged me) started it. It's a place to keep track of all those great ideas we find everywhere on the net, and some of our own crafty ideas, too. So, head on over and check it out! If you have an idea you are dying to share, leave her a comment with your e-mail, and she'll add you as a contributor.

If I had a Million Dollars....

Do you remember that song? I love that song. And if I actually had a million dollars, I think I might spend most of it at the KEEN website. I love these shoes. Cory got me a pair on clearence when we lived in Twin. They are the most comfortable shoes I have ever, ever worn. And I've had my pair for probably 3 or 4 years. They are still in great condition (other than being dirty). They are spendy, though. I just found their website. They have shoes for everybody, and bags, and socks.

I want these for Gabby and Madi...



...and these for Jake and Alex...



...and these for Jaxson.



And for me? I want these...



...and these...



...and these...



...and these...



...and this...



...and this...



I could go on and on. I love these shoes. But, alas, I don't have a million dollars. So, now, I'll have to settle for playing the coupon game. I don't know if I have the patience for it. But if I'm ever gonna save up enough for all that stuff, I guess I better at least try. So my friend Ali J is loving it. Click on her name, and it will take you to her blog post about the grocery game. There are some great links to other blogs who have links to other sites that help win the grocery game. Ali's favorite place is CVS. I wish we had a CVS here. Sounds like I could be getting lots of stuff for just pennies. Dangit. Oh well. I'll just have to study those other sites, and come up with some other places to save. If you join the game with me, good luck.

I hate Walmart

Someday, I'm going to figure out how to juggle everything. There's just so much to do in life these days, that it overwhelms me. So I don't do any of it! Hence the Messy house and lack of Christmas presents under the tree! And then there's always the stress of the empty house in Twin this is STILL on the market. If that isn't enough of burden to cause stress, I don't know what is! (Ashlee, I feel for ya. I didn't realize your house had been on the market for 18 mos!!!)

I called Cory the other day and asked him to stop by the store and pick me up some motivation. He couldn't find any. Dangit.

I have a feeling this is going to turn into a mighty random post. I've been meaning to post every day, then I don't. Too much to catch up on. So much for keeping a journal for posterity, huh?

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We spent it with the Blad side of the family at the cabin. I love it there. It's so relaxing. The kids love playing with there cousins, and pretty much have fun doing whatever. But of course, we had to continue the Blad tradition of Black Friday Madness, so we came home Thursday night. Madi's old enough to babysit, so we left her in charge, and Cory and I ventured out into the cold bright(actually dark) and early at 3:45am. Headed to Walmart. I hate Walmart. I had a feeling it wouldn't be all that great when I saw the two Sherrif's cars parked at either entrance. We went to the Walmart closest to our house, since it was closest to all the other stores, too. Just had to get those $4 jammies, and a few other gems. Just let me clarify something here. The other shoppers were great. (Well, the ones I encountered were. Apperently there was a brawl over the cricuts.) The thing that bugged me the most was the employees. First, as you walk in, you are welcomed by the happy ol' greeter, and handed a map of where the doorbusters will be. The map is never right, and this year was no exception. Cory went off to get the things on his list. I stayed in the area of the $4 jammies and track suits. This Walmart did not have anything gaurded or wrapped up. It was all open with the understanding that you don't take it until 5am. Okay. I'll play along. Afterall, that's the fun of black friday, right? So, there were some rulebreakers who grabbed what they wanted, then moved on to the next thing. Those of us playing by the rules would pick up and look, then put back. Everytime that would happen one the the pajama nazi's (aka-Walmart employees) would scold us like little children and yell at us not to touch anything until 5am. I finally said "Look. There are people coming up, picking out the pj's they want, and walking off. Those are the people you should be yelling at, not us!", or something to that effect. At one point, a customer came over with some of the doorbuster track suits and said, they told me I could go ahead and take what I wanted. So one of the pajama buyers had us save her place in line and went to pick out what she wanted. Once again she was told "You can't touch anything until 5am!! You have to put them back!" She retorted, "I have been watching people come and go with these. There aren't that many left, now. I'm not putting ANY back!!" So that's how it went with Walmart. None of the employees were on the same page. Some were saying go ahead and take it. Others were yelling to put it back. I know Walmart has alot of employees, but they could have sent out a memo or something as to what the employees were supposed to do! At the very least, if they didn't want people touching stuff, they should have had it covered. Walmart ruined my Black Friday fun this year. Unfortunatly, with finances the way they are, Walmart was necessary.

What else have we done??? Oh yeah.

On Wednesday, my sil had some free tickets to the Nutcracker. I've wanted to take my girls to this forever! But the tickets are always so expensive. So when we were offered free tickets, we jumped! Now, let me just say...we had a blast. It was fun and entertaining, and the girls enjoyed it and loved being with cousins. But, this was not your everyday Nutcracker performance. I can only guess that it was a dance recital with a Nuctcracker theme. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. I kept expecting to see a few professional ballerinas. Not so much. The older girls who danced en pointe were pretty good. But there were no professionals in the place. And Clara didn't do much but walk around on her tippy toes at the beginning, then sat on a bench at the back of the stage, with who I assume was the nutcracker, and watch everyone else dance. I think that when the cloggers came out and performed is when I realized this was not your traditional Nutcracker Ballet. All that being said, the dancers did a great job. The cutest was the little tiny girls. They were the princesses, I think. Must have been 3 years old. They were ADORABLE! They were supposed to run across the stage and jump over a wand in the middle of the floor. There was this one curly headed cutie who tip toed her way across, with her arms out to her sides, and her nose up in the air...so very dainty like. It was so stinking cute. And, there were some portly ballerina's, older like 14, 15, 16, who were really good! Much more flexible than you would think! And then, another little girl's class, probably 4 years old, danced. There was a little girl who was quite heavy. She sooooo did not want to be there. She just kept looking around at the other little girls, then she would flap her arms a little, then do a little kick, all the while with a look that said "Why did my parents make me do this?" It was funny and sad at the same time. Thanks to the Bawdens for the tickets. We had fun!

Can't think of all the other fabulous and interesting stuff I was going to share. One of these days I'll post a pic of my Christmas tree. And I have some links to some fun Christmas sights, and some money saving sights I want to share. Until then, have a fabulous day!!

tag tag bo-bag...

Before I do the tag-I have another internet favorite...Craigslist. So fun. It's like an online garage sale. Just like a regular garage sale, some things are overpriced...some things are great deals...and you have to do some searching to find what you want. But when you find a treasure...woohoo! And it's soooo easy to list on there. And it's free. Last Thurs night I listed Jaxson's Bumbo seat for $20, since we never use it anymore. Friday morning, it sold. I'm now looking EVERYWHERE for stuff to sale. Craigslist rocks!

And now-the tag. My friend, Marci (Well, actually she's my sisters friend. But I've met her a few times, and she's awesome and so nice. So, she's gonna be my friend, too), tagged me to do the "8 things" tag. And I'm always up for a tag, so here goes!

8 favorite TV shows: (we don't have cable at the moment, so I don't have much to choose from. So I'll tell ya my fave shows past AND present.)

1-Little House on the Prarie (when I was a little tyke, I called this one "Little House on the Primary)
2-Lost
3-Dancing With The Stars
4-Biggest Loser
5-Any CSI
6-Eli Stone
7-Pushing Up Daisies
8-Anything on TLC

8 things I did yesterday:

1-woke up
2-cleaned the basement
3-finished the 2nd Pendragon book
4-bought groceries
5-turned into a slave driver to get the kids to clean their rooms
6-made 20 bucks off a bumbo seat
7-fed my facebook addiction
8-cleaned the kitchen

8 things I'm looking forward to:

1-Christmas
2-having our house sell, so we can buy this one
3-getting the basement finished
4-Thanksgiving at the cabin
5-decorating for Christmas
6-getting new carpet in the Twin Falls house, so it will sell
7-the weekend
8-Twilight-the movie

8 things on my wish list

1-wish the Twin Falls house would sell
2-wish that someone would buy our house
3-wish our house would sell so we could get out of debt
4-wish I could lose 40lbs without exercise, diet, or illness
5-wish I had a fireplace
6-wish Crazy Mommy would put up a new post
7-wish our house would sell
8-wish our house would sell

I tag...Ashlee, Wendy, Lynn, Amber, Melanie, Felicia, Montay, and anyone else who wants to play along!

Good grief....

So, now what's my excuse? I wish I could say I was unbelievably busy. That would sound better than "I've been neglecting laundry, housework, and exercise to waste time on the computer." So, if I've been on the computer, why haven't I been blogging about my fabulously exciting life? Because, I have a new addiction.



It is so fun to reconnect with old friends. And, it's like the ultimate digital pet type toy. You can send newly planted seeds to your friends, and they will grow after a few days. You can send Christmas gifts to your friends, and the ones sent to you go under your tree. You can send smiles. You can have a pet. There are games to play. You can join groups, like "I'm a fan of President Hinkley". (There is really a fan club for Him...so cool.) And now, I've discovered you can kidnap your friends. That's a fun game to play. In order to escape, they have to answer a question about the city where you have hidden them. Seriously, I have spent WAY too much time on it.

Also, I've been reading this blog. I'm a little addicted to it, too. It says on the sidebar that it's fiction. But even though it says that, it's so easy to get sucked into the writing. It's like a blog soap opera. And another way I've been wasting time.

I'm blaming it all on the weather. The change in weather has made it really hard to get motivated to do anything but snuggle under a blanket and put off everything else. Anyway, I'm vowing to do better. I do have alot to blog about.

I had my 36th birthday on Monday. I've never really had a problem with getting older before. This birthday was hard. I really don't know why. I think I just really like the 30's, and am enjoying my kids, and don't really want it to change, ya know?
I told Cory that all I wanted for my birthday was for him to get the kids up and take them to school so I could sleep in. He totally did it. He called in to work and told them He'd be in late, and then took care of it all. When I tried to help Gabby with her hair, she became offended and said, "I already did it!! Dad said you were supposed to sleep in, so I did it myself." It was so hard to let her go to school with her hair looking like it was done by a 7 year old. But I did. It was a good day...up until I forgot to pick my kids up from school. Yep. I really did. They had an early release day that I totally forgot. They got out at 1:40. At 2:00, the school called. I thought,"I hope nobody got hurt, or is sick. Here is the conversation:

Secretary- Mrs. Blad?
Me- This is she.
Sec- I've got Alex and Gabby here in the office.
Me- (That's wierd..I wonder why they are both there. What did they do?) Okay?
Sec- They are waiting for a ride home.
Me- (...???...) Oh crap! I totally forgot it was early release today! I'll be right there!

And for the rest of the day, felt like loser Mom.
We went out to eat at Bajio, and Cory's sister and family came with us. It was yummmmm. Afterwards, Cory took me to Deseret Book and bought me this...



And part of this...



And then we went home and ate this...



Chocolate Tuxedo Mousse Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. Actually, we got it at Sam's Club. It was soooooo yummy!

And I guess 36 isn't so bad.

Tagged...

I was tagged by my SIL, Melanie tagged me. So here you go...

A-Attached or Single?--Happily attached and married
B-Best Friend?--Cory
C-Cake or Pie?--chocolate...what? that should totally be an option!
D-Day of Choice?--Friday...got the whole weekend ahead.
E-Essential Item?--books...we don't have a dvr OR cable. I read alot.
F-Favorite Color?--happy sunshine yellow
G-Gummy Bears or Worms?--bears-I don't know why.
H-Hometown?--Burley
I-Indulgences?--sleeping in-aahhh.
J-January or July?--July...summer vacation, fireworks, warm weather...
K-Kids?--6 of 'em.
L-Life Is Incomplete Without?--My family (good answer, Mel)
M-Marriage Date?--August 19, 1993
N-Number of Siblings?--1 brother, 1 sister (and lots of in-laws)
O-Oranges or Apples?--chocolate...just kidding-ummm apples
P-Phobias or Fears?--fear-failing my children, and our house never getting sold.
Q-Quotes?--"Because I said so!"-all mom's everywhere
R-Reason to Smile?--I have great kids
S-Season?--Spring
T-Tag 5 People?--Wendy(because you need to post again!!), and anybody else who wants to play.
U-Unknown Fact?--I was on the women's clogging team at Ricks College
V-Very Favorite Store?--my new favorite store is Porters...so fun!
W-Worst Habit?--procrastinating
X-X-Ray or Ultrasound?--Ultrasound-it's usually for a good reason. (but I'm done)
Y-Your Favorite Food?--Depends on my mood. I pretty much like it all!
Z-Zodiac?--scorpio

Stupid busy...

Seriously, I HATE being busy. Some people thrive on busy. Me, not so much. To me, busy = stress. Don't get me wrong, I like to be involved. I just don't like feeling like I have every minute of my day planned. Sometimes I just want to lounge around in my PJ's and read to my hearts content, or be crafty and creative, ya know? But, apparently this is the busy season of my life, and I need to learn to love it. Or else just learn to say no. There is my rant for the month.( I can say that, since October is almost over.)
So, good grief! So much to catch up on! Seriously, I can't even remember the last 2 1/2 weeks. I guess I'll just tell ya what I can remember.

Highlights...
*we noticed Jaxson's 1st tooth on Oct 22nd.
*Gabby and Alex both have straight A's on their report cards this quarter. And both are top AR readers in their class.
*Alex tripled his AR goal.
*The kids all had fun dressing up for spirit week at their schools.


*I'm now the room mom for Alex's class, kinda last minute. They had their Halloween party yesterday. We watched a movie and ate popcorn. I felt like it was lame, but they loved it.
*Helped set up for the school book fair. I love books. Bookfairs are not a good thing for me to attend.
*Decorated an empty classroom for an AR reading room. The theme was "RIP" (read in peace) The kids got to read in the dark with flashlights. It was a hit!
*Went to the Ward harvest festival. LOTS of people and not enough room. But, fun anyway.

Remember that new calling I was telling you about? Well, I've finally been sustained. I'm the new Beehive advisor. (that's the 12-13 year old girls in our church.) There are 14 of them right now. Wow. I'm really excited, though. It will be fun to experience Young Women's with Madi. And she says she's excited I'm in there with her. There's one more thing to keep me busy!!
Cory just got back from a fishing trip with Alex and my Dad. They went to Hell's Canyon last Friday, and got home this past Wednesday. They seem to have had lots of fun. Alex caught a few fish, and was pretty proud of himself. When he wasn't catching fish, he was starting campfires. He's such a pyro. Here are some pics...









Mom came to stay with me while the boys were fishing. It was a lifesaver to have another adult in the house. Thanks Mom, It was fun having you here! I don't like being alone. I'm glad I'm not a single parent. Those people have it rough! I don't think I could ever make it. Jaxson started crawling while Cory was gone. Of course, Cory had the camera, so no pics. He also started pulling himself up to standing position at the couch and anything else that would support him. Unfortunately, he's pretty wobbly once he gets standing, so he falls over a lot. He keeps crawling into the laundry baskets and getting stuck. It's almost impossible to get anything done when he's awake. He is constantly going, putting things in his mouth, bonking his head...he's a busy boy!



Well, that's a little bit of a catch-up. Time to go get something done while Jaxson's still asleep. Happy Halloween!

Random Post

Do you remember Jr High? Was it really that cool to stand outside in 25 degree weather without a coat on, jumping up and down and hugging yourself to try to keep warm? I must be one of those old fashioned-type moms who insist my daughter wear a coat in below freezing temperatures. Crazy. Luckily, Madi doesn't complain.

Have you met His Highness?

Gabby found her princess crown and put it on Jaxson. He looks pretty regal, don't you think?
Here he is addressing his loyal subjects

and taking time to be among the commoners


Cory and I have discovered a new weight loss plan. All you have to do is get a cough. No really. You've got your cardio-coughing over and over and over and over raises your heartrate. At least it raised mine. You've got your toning-coughing is a good ab workout. And it even helps decrease your caloric intake, if you cough until you throw-up. It looks good on paper, but the scales aren't changing much. Dangit.

Did you get snow this past weekend? We went to Burley to get pumpkins. It started snowing late Friday night. It never stopped. We left at around 4pm. This is what we drove in.

Two and a half hours later, when we were almost home, this is what we were driving in.

Can you believe that? No snow in Poky or IF. But all together, about 16in at my parents house in Burley. They had to cancel church. Crazy to see that much snow so early in the season. Must be that silly global warming again.

And here are all the pumpkins we came home with. We got most of them in Burley, and the rest came from Pocatello. We had to get our share from BOTH grandpas.

have you ever seen a cinderella pumpkin before? My Dad grew these this year. Kinda hard to see in the pic, but they are a really dark orange, almost red color. I think they look so cool.

Looks like we've got a lot of carving to do!

Well, I'm all outta random. Have a great day!

I've been...

Hi. Holy goodness, it's been a long time since I've blogged. Crazy. Here's a rundown of what's been going on.

What I've been doing...
1. Painting. Last week we painted my in-laws kithen, living room, and hallway. It was our (all the kids) Christmas gift to them. It turned out so awesome. My favorite is the red wall in the kitchen. I want a red wall.



2. Got a new calling. Can't tell you what it is. Haven't been set apart, yet.

3. Travenling. We went to my sister's house over Conference Weekend. We had so much fun. We went to Discovery Gateway. It's a children's museum at The Gateway in Salt Lake. The kids had a lot of fun. Afterward, we went to California Pizza Kitchen. Just a note. If you go to California Pizza Kitchen, when you order, be aware that the pizzas are meant to be individual meals. Nothing looks more pathetic than 3 people sharing 1 pizza the size of a dinner plate. It was good, though! I wish I pics to share, but true to form, we left our camera in the car. My sister took some pics. Hey, Crazy Mommy, send me those pictures, please!

4. Sick. Jaxson and I have been sick. Nothing serious, just enough to make you want to sleep all day. I sound worse than I feel, really. Jaxson sounds better, but he still has a cough and boogery nose. Love this season, don't you?

5. Having parties! I hosted a luncheon for my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law that live close. It was fun. We sent the kids downstairs (I love having a basement, even if it isn't finished. Just throw some old carpet on the floor and voila...instant playroom!), and we stayed upstairs and made smoothies and quesadillas and visited. We've decided to make it a monthly thing. Can't wait till next time. Thanks for coming gals!

What I'm doing now...
1. Checking out my sister's new blog. You can check it out here. She is known as the funniest person in the world. Also, self titled "The Queen of Everything". She also has one of the cutest little boys in the world. She's my hero.

2. Typing. Obviously.

3. Waiting for Snow. The forcast (depending on who you listen to) calls for like 4-10 inches accumulation this weekend. Yuck. At least we got the kids new coats.

What I should be doing...
1. Typing the school's newsletter, and getting ready to announce AR awards at the school.

2.Cleaning, laundry, packing for a trip to Burley. We're going to go to Burley this weekend to get pumpkins. Dad grows pumpkins for the grandkids. He has 10. Only 5 live close enough to run over and get some. We love him, though! The kids can't wait.

What I'm going to do next...
1. Put in a load of laundry, and then take a nap. I hate being sick!

Want free jewlery?

Yes, I'm totally serious! Just go here to enter. She's got some beautiful necklaces!!

Gettin' Creative...

Good day to you! It's been awhile, no? Well, I'm back. And I've brought pictures! I haven't posted any pictures for a while, so I thought today would be a picture fest! Here goes!

First, I've been visiting alot of crafty-type blogs lately. It got me itching to make something myself. This is what I came up with:





I got inspired to make this after visiting Amber's blog. I thought "I wonder what I have around here to make something like this..." So, I rummaged throught my scrapbook stuff for supplies, and then found this frame I had got at Shopko a couple years ago. Then I took the little pumpkin memo holder and tied a bunch of ribbon around the top, and Voila. Halloween decor. I love these colors. I felt good to create. I haven't made anything for a long time. But now I have all these things I want to make, and limited moola with which to do it. I can't wait until payday, so I can go buy the stuff to make these. They are so cute!
When I was checking out this blog, I was inspired to make these:



Again, I just made them with what I had. I like her's better, but these will do.

Jaxson is getting so big. He'll be 6 months old on Oct 2nd. Good grief. He's doing the army crawl and exploring his home. He used to go only on carpet, but has found he goes so much faster on a hard floor. He likes to think he's pretty cool.



The girls put hom in a toy shopping cart and pushed him around like he was their baby. He loved it. And take a look at that tie. He IS fashion.





Her's Jake lovin' on Jaxson. He's a good big brother. Unfortunately, he's been spending alot of time here:




Poor kid.

And that's the end of my picture fest. I just realized I take pics of the little kids while the big ones are in school. So I'll work on that. Until next time!

Ahoy, Me Hearties!

Did ye know? It be National Speak Like a Pirate Day! Arrrr! If ye dinnae know how ter speak like a buccaneer, ahoy is a buccaneer speak translator.



I reckon I shall nab fortywinks afore I go fetch Jake from preschool.
May fair winds find ye, and be havin' jolly!

Oops...

Apperantly the cake-in-a-mug link didn't work. I've fixed it, but here it is again. Thanks for the heads up, Lynn. I've actually never tried it before, but I thought it looked yum. Let me know if it's good!

I share...It's what I do.

Hello my bloggy friends. I've come across a few things on the Internet I thought were priceless, and must me shared. Because, like the post title says "I share....It's what I do."

First, As I was browsing some of the blogs I read, I came across a link to a blog called "Made with love and glue. Lots of glue." How could I not go check this one out. Glue? To me, glue=craft possibility. So off I went, and she didn't let me down. And guess what! There is humor, too! (I love funny) So, I share a link to a funny video on her blog. I laughed. I hope you do, too. Let me just give you one clue...period.


Next up? Chocolate.(this is for you, Ashlee) One of my friend posted a yummy cake-in-a-mug recipe. Go here to see it.

And last,a good old fashioned debate over high heels.



So, I can't decide how I feel about that. The little black ones looked kinda cute on the little crawling babe. But really, high heels for a newborn? Kinda over the top. And pricey. What do you think?

Need a lift?

So, are you having a bad day? Do you need a lift? My sister introduced me to these blogs.






These are two awesome blogs. Nie Nie is a blog written by a gal named Stephanie. She's from Arizona. In August, her and her husband were in a plane crash, and both were burned badly. They are both in the burn unit of a Phoenix hospital. Currently on her blog, her sister is re-posting stuff from Stephanie's archives. C Jane is Stephanie's sister. She is caring for 3 of Stephanie's children, and she has a newborn as well. Reading these two blogs makes me want to be a better sister, and better Mother, a better woman, and better spouse, and a better friend. It's sometimes sad, and I shed some tears. But mostly I'm inspired and in awe of the support this unfortunate accident has inspired from many, many people. So, if you're having a bad day, read these two blogs. Then go hug your kids.

Revenge of a 4 year old brother...

Jake is angry at is sister, Madi. She has a recorder that she got in school in 5th grade. She found it this morning. Jake wanted to play beautiful music on it this morning. Madi said no.

Jakes revenge: He ran down the hall to her room, stuck just his bum in her room, and farted.
My reaction: If I was a good Mom, I would have told him that wasn't nice. Instead, I laughed.

Boys.
Where do they get this stuff?

My 5 Senses Meme....

So, I've been kicking around the idea of posting a meme I've been thinking about for awhile, and decided to just do it. Maybe it's been done before - I don't know- but I've never seen it. So here goes!

List 5 things that you love, that are related to the 5 senses:

1-Touch- I love the feel of my baby's hand wrapped around my finger.

2- Sight- I love to see my carpets right after I vacuum. (does that make me weird?)

3- Smell- I love the smell of clean laundry, or more specifically, fabric softener.

4- Hear- I love to listen to hear my kids laughing. That usually means they are getting along. (but not necessarily staying out of trouble!)

5- Taste- I love the taste of water. Nothing quenches my thirst like good ol' H2O.

So go ahead and join in my goofy meme. I tag everyone!

Lucky Georgia

Did you watch "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" tonight? This cute little lady won the million dollars. She's the first one to ever do so. Her name is Kathy Cox. She is the Georgia State Superintendent. She is giving the million to the Georgia schools. She was so fun to watch, and so inspiring. Her biggest thing was she wanted to teach the kids to "never give up" and "do your best". And she did just that. She's definitely an advocate for children and education. Georgia is lucky to have her!

6 Quirks....

Helloooooo!
My sil, Melanie, tagged me to do a 6 quirks meme. I'm a little hesitant to share. Don't want to scare you away. But, here goes.

1. I can't hold still. Drives Cory crazy if he's sitting by me. I'm always bouncing my leg up and down, or wiggling my foot. I think it's my version of ADD. I'm doing it even now with the laptop on my lap. Cory keeps putting his hand on my leg to stop me.

2. I curl my toes under my feet. That's how I sit. It looks really weird. But to me, it's comfortable.

3. I don't like my legs to be constricted. If Cory puts his legs over mine, or the kids lay on my legs, it drives me CRAZY! If I have one leg free, I'm okay. But if I can't move my legs, I feel claustrophobic. Maybe this has to do with quirk #1. I blame it on my 2 older siblings. They used to sit on me and tickle torture me.

4. Because of the tickle tortures in my childhood, I am immune to the whole tickling thing, now. I am not ticklish at all. It's great. Cory is totally ticklish, so I can torture him without any retribution. It's fabulous!

5. I hate it when people scrape silverware on their teeth and plates. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I can't feed my children with silverware. I have to use plastic ware, or those little spoons with the rubber-type covering on them. I, myself, can use silverware, because I'm careful not to let it touch my teeth.

6. I don't like broken crayons, or crayons that aren't sharp. I always stock up on crayons at the beginning of the school year, so we have sharp crayons at our house. The result is a very large amount of unused broken and un-sharp crayons, wasting away in boxes somewhere. I can't bring myself to throw them away. I keep thinking I make these someday.

So there you have it. I tag everyone (specifically Wendy. Have you created your blog yet?!?) Are you brave enough to share?(If you do, leave a comment that you posted on your blog, so I don't miss it!!)

Getting settled

I have decided that I am not a big fan of moving. Anyone else feel that way?

We are here, getting settled, and trying to keep our heads above the sea of boxes that has taken over our new home. I honestly don't know how we fit all this stuff in our other house. It may take me FOREVER to unpack it all!

We are loving our new home. The kids are loving their new schools. I have joined the PTO, and am in charge of AR, and the newletter. The kids seem to be adjusting well, and are making friends.(at least that's what they tell me) I hope things continue to go well.

I'll post some pictures as soon as I can find the charger for the camera. I'll be back soon with tales of our move and our live. Have a great day!!

(Wendy, hurry up and start your blog, already!!)

Improv Everywhere....

Yeah, I know I should be packing, and I know I said you wouldn't hear from me again until next week, but I had to post this. My sister sent me an e-mail with a link to an Improv Everywhere clip on you tube. Here it is.
So funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkYZ6rbPU2M

So then, I decided to check out their website. Here are some of my favorites.

I'm sure some of you have seen this one before....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo

In honor of the Olympics....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggm_j_6jgTc

Power to the redheads!!!!....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoPmd_wc7s8

If you want to check out the website, its www.improveverywhere.com

Third time's a charm...

Woohoo! We have a place to live! We met with the builders (different builders than the last house) of the house we wanted on Wednesday. We made an offer for the asking price, with contingencies that we would rent the home until ours sells. And we signed the offer right there, so we are under contract now. So we are moving this weekend. I should be packing. But, I'm tired, and I'm going to bed. Probably won't hear from me untill next week. We won't have internet until Wednesday. Thanks for your prayers!!

Do you want your house to sell?

If you do, we are now offering our services (for a small fee, of course). It would seem that all we need to do is make an offer on a house, and someone else will swoop in and grab it from us. (I'm angry, by the way) Or maybe I just jinxed us by blogging about it before our offer was accepted. At any rate, we are now starting all over and looking for houses, AGAIN. I am blogging to you from Poky. When we found out, we packed up and headed east. We'll head to IF tomorrow morning and hopefully find the THE house. Third times a charm, right? Our awesome IF realtor is rearranging his schedule for us, so he can take us around to look at more houses. He is awesome. If you ever move to IF, we've got the realtor for you.

Anyway, we thought for sure we had this house. We think that maybe they were using us to get a higher offer from someone else. We'd been negotiating back and forth for a few days. Our realtor kept calling them today to find out their response to our last offer, leaving messages every time. Then, right before the "deadline", they called our realtor and said someone gave them a better offer this morning. Phooey.

I'm a little stressed. School starts so soon, and I'm just not sure where we'll be. Wish us luck, again!

Need a laugh?

Laughs provided by Gabby's 1st grade vocab/writing notebook:

-crabby, brave
Somewone was crabby. I was brave.
(I wonder if she was talking about me?)

-creature
A creature is an liveing prsan or a animale. I am a creture. A animale is a creature.
(sometimes, she really does fit into this catagory)

-buried, exciiting, scared, quivered
I quivered in my bed. I was exciting on my brothers berthday. It is scardy in the dark. My granma's dog buried his poop in the sand.
(?)

-gloomy, tiptoe
It was gloomy. I was gloomy outside this morning. It is gloomy at nihgt. It is gloomy after rain sours. It is gloomy in a tornatoe. It is gloomy in a hrakan.
(I don't know about you, but I think I would be more than just gloomy in a "tornatoe")

-narrow
Ivy is narrow.
(I wish I was narrow.)

-pleasant, crash
Pleasant means nice. It is a pleasant day. I like being pleasant. Pleasant is a nice thing to do. I like people that are pleasant. It is pleasant to give stuff. Crash means a big nois.
(Loved this one. She's not always so pleasant!)

(Last, but not least. This one is my fave.)
-problem, collection, magnifying glass, teddy bear
I have a collection of teddy bears. I have a magnifying glass. I have a problem.

Good News, Good Book...

We are, hopefully, 1 counter offer away from getting a house in Idaho Falls. Woohoo!!

This is it.

Do you like it? Yeah, it's lacking grass and a fence, and the basement is unfinished, but hopefully it will be ours. The best news is we have been pre-qualified. That was my biggest worry, with the market being as bad as it is. But, turned out, I didn't need to worry at all! We will probably be moving the end of next week. I'm sad to leave Twin. I love our Ward. We've made a lot of fabulous friends. We love the school. We just got a new Temple. But we're anxious and excited to move on to a new part of our life. We signed Alex and Gabby up for school yesterday, and will sign Madi up for Middle School next week. School starts in 2 weeks. Crazy!!Now, if we could just get this house sold! Our new realtor has been awesome. She does what she says she's gonna do, when she says she will. It's been great!

Now on to more important stuff(hehehe). Have you read it, yet?

I did. I loved it! It took me awhile, though. I kept getting interrupted by kids. So I ended up reading it at night after the kids were in bed. Stayed up till the wee hours getting my vampire fix. I thought it was a great book. There were a few twists that totally caught me by surprise. That's not easy to do. I'm usally pretty good at figuring things out quickly in books and movies. I still pretty much had things figured out before they happened, but she was able to shock me with a twist every now and then. Bummer it was the last in the series. I do, however, think that she crossed the line from young adult fiction to adult fiction with this one. Have you read it? What did you think?

Wordless Wednesday

Lucky us. This is growing in our backyard!

For more on Wordless Wednesday, go here.

Good Times

I am one of those people who L-O-V-E family reunions. I love being with my family. My brother lives in Omaha and my sister lives near Provo, so it's alway a treat when we are able to all be together. My parents live less that an hour away, so we are able to see them often. Anyway, the party started last Friday (July 25). That's when my sister and I arrived at my parent's house. My brother got there Thurs night.

On Saturday my brother's wife (Sandy), Cory's sister (Felicia), and a different sister's husband (Jay)-yeah, that's confusing...sorry- all competed in the Spudman triathalon in Burley. My heroes. I signed up to do it once, and backed out. Too scary for me. Anyway, they all did awesome. After that was a family reunion for my Mom's side of the family. Just a little 1-day, potluck, come-and visit-all-day type of thing. It was fun to see so many people I hadn't seen in a long time.

On Sunday, we skipped church. We used the excuse that getting 18 people ready for church with only 1 bathroom was near impossible. My sister brought stuff to do a mentos geyser. When you drop a roll of mentos in a 2 liter bottle of diet cola, it shoots up really high into the sky. It was awesome! Each kid got to do one.

We made up for skipping church when on Monday when we went to the Temple open house. It was our second time. It's absolutely beautiful. The kids think it's awesome, too, and were excited to show their cousins. We took some pics of each family after the tour, then headed to our house for lunch.

After lunch, we all packed up and headed to Island Park for the remainder of the time we would be together. We have a Blad family cabin up there that Cory helped his Dad build. It is absolute Heaven up there. So peaceful, and sooooo much more room than my parents have at their house. (3 bathrooms-yay!) It's a fabulous get-a-way. I'm excited that when we move, we will be so much closer. Anyway, we had lots of fun, going to Johnny Sack's cabin, Mesa Falls, Buffalo Springs, Yellowstone, Sawtelle Peak, Big Spring.....I didn't go to all the places. Too hard with baby. And even if I didn't have a baby, I wouldn't have gone to Sawtelle Peak. Too scary for me. It's the top of a mountain in Island Park, and it is home to a radar thing for airplanes. The road up is switchback all the way (can you say carsick?). Cory said Alex was really concerned about his little brother the whole time...kept yelling at him to get away from the edge. At least I know he's looking out for him, right? Anyway, I guess the cool thing about it is you can see a 360 degree panoramic view encompasing 3 states. Awesome. I'm completely happy to view that from the pictures Cory took.

My brother had to end their vacation earlier than expected when they recieved some bad news from home, and had to leave pretty quickly. My kids were pretty bummed about that. They were sad to see their cousins leave. But they still had 1 cousin left, and even though he's only 2 years old, they love to play with him. Drew is a hoot. And I think he had fun playing with them. My sister said that when they got home, he wouldn't get out of the car. He wanted to go to "Abby's house" (that's how he would say Gabby) I loved that whenever he saw Cory he'd say "Unca Ory?, Unca Ory?" He didn't ever want anything, just to say Cory's name....so cute!

I hope they all had as much fun as we did. The kids were pretty sad to see people leave, and tears were shed each time someone left. We decided to stay one more day and go back to Yellowstone on Thursday, then came home Friday. Friday happened to be Cory's birthday. Poor guy. He spent it cleaning the cabin and driving home. We did stop in IF and took the kids to see the house we want to buy. They we stopped in Poky and ate a birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse (yum!). Then we stopped one last time at my parent's house. They had very graciously made Cory a birthday cake, since we were traveling all day. Finally made it home late Friday night. I did absolutely nothing the next day. Nada. But Cory went to Costco and surprised me the book. You know the one. Breaking Dawn, the last in the Twilight series. All I have to say about that is I agree with the title of chapter nine...sure as heck didn't see that one coming!