My finger is jammed

Sorry no pics....it just happens to be my picture-button-pushing finger (and making it REALLY inconvienent to type "y", "j", "n" or "h"!!!)
"How did you jam your finger?" you ask? Well, it's actually quite an easy explanation. After teaching Joy School today my kids and Tiffany Iver's girls were playing in the front yard while we moms were talking. The kids were chasing each other around our fix-it guy's truck. Next thing we know, we hear a click and look at Aleeya in the front seat of the truck with her hand on the gear shift. ALL THE KIDS WERE IN THERE (except Iris, who I was holding)! Camden had so kindly opened the door for all of them. Since we live on a hill, the truck went rolling back into the yard across the street, barely missing the mailbox, with me running after it. Then the truck started rolling back towards us and down towards the OTHER neighbor's yard across the street again (my next door neighbor's). So I handed Iris off to Tiffany. Opened the door, grabbed Aleeya out who got tangled in the seat belt. The door slams closed on my hand. I lay Aleeya down in the grass, open the door off my fingers, jump in the front seat, slam on the brakes just FEET before hitting her mailbox and really going down the BIG hill (to which I would've NEVER caught them!).
The worse part about experiences like this is all the "What ifs" that your mind plays on you after! It wasn't until 30 minutes after that I started tearing up thinking what COULD HAVE been.
Don't worry though, Brooks scared the bee-jeebies out of the boys that I don't think they'll EVER want to get into anyone's car again. Then they prayed and thanked Heavenly Father for keeping them safe.......after they were done boo-hooing.
(seriously think of truck going FAST down the hill, oncoming traffic, running into a house, crashing this truck, deaths, etc.) I can't help but count my many blessings at this point.....I just wished I would've counted my many blessings WITHOUT this experience and a swollen, bruised finger.

EQ Lip Sync

Here is the Elder's Quorum Lip Sync number (although there was no singing!). Brooks is the one doing the walking handstand. I was quite impressed since they threw this together 1 hour before the performance.......thanks to Will.

Our Lip Sync number

Here is "our crazy Mommy" (me), Nikki and Wendy in our ward Lip Sync.

My boys told me I was pretty silly, but that "Ella's Mommy was MORE silly". (Nikki)

Twins

Can you see why everyone asks if they're twins?
If you take the whole pink and blue thing out of it, they're pretty close.

Pretty Scooby Doo Princess

Here is Aleeya sleeping after church in her BEAUTIFUL dress (Jodi, I love it!)

Notice anything strange? No, we're NOT potty-training but I guess her brothers gave into her asking if they could put THEIR undies on her over her diaper! (did that sentence even make sense?)

Would YOU dare?

Two things to note in this picture:

1- why is it that dogs don't have "red eye", they have yellow/green eye.....and there isn't a photo editor button for that.

2- That's Iris' iris quilt that I happened to find in a fabric store. I was soooo excited to find an purple iris on something! Mom put the nice border around it. I love it.

My favorite color......or used to be?

I took a lame ol' quiz on Facebook (those darn things are addicting!) that said my hidden talent is painting. So OF COURSE, if Brooks is going to be gone Friday and Saturday, I should let that talent surface right?! Why not start on the most public room, the living room? Makes sense to me.....or it DID at the time. (Keep in mind I've NEVER painted before)

I wanted it to be a surprise. Brooks was leaving at 3:00 in the afternoon. So all morning I taped behind all the furniture so he couldn't see that part of the room, and I washed down the walls. I also was busy making him some snack mix for his softball tournament and cutting up vegetables for a reception. Everything was going to plan because I would get our new DVD player in the mail. The plan was, after Brooks left, finishing taping, start painting and stick the kids in front of the movie. Then make dinner, eat, play, Stick them in bed and finish all the painting since I was babysitting some kids the next morning and had to finish it on Friday night.

Things don't always go according to plan.....at least not with 5 kids.....or 6 with Brooks. Brooks DID leave at 3:00. I DID finish taping, or at least as much as the tape had. The DVD player didn't show up. Nice.

I borrowed a portable one from once again, come-to-the-rescue, Amanda. By this time, all the kids were awake, but hey, I was bound and determined to keep my schedule.

I painted this first wall. Note: yellow is my favorite color, but I'm thinking I should've gotten it a tad lighter. Not sure yet. We'll see when all the things are up on the wall if it'll be a nice homey room that makes you feel happy and welcome or just a room that makes you feel like you need to pee. The boys were playing downstairs, so I pulled out the paint with Aleeya, because after all, who WOULDN'T want an almost 2-year-old's help? I started. It's not too hard. Not too bad. But I was warned by master-painter, Kim Blackham, to ALWAYS pull the tape off when the paint was still wet. Just then Iris woke up and needed to eat. So I sat down to nurse her and watched my paint dry!!!! I said to myself, "Self, you better hurry, or that blue tape will be a permanent fixture in you living room!" I didn't have a choice. So with Iris latched on (thankfully, she was on the left side) I kept painting, while Aleeya "taped" the other wall for me. I finished my first wall.

Just then, the phone rang. It's Brooks telling me he forgot his license! You know, the license that I reminded him 4 times not to forget? Yep, that one. Anyway, he wanted me to quickly scan it for him and email it to him. Our computer got a virus a month ago so after cleaning it all out, the "scan" program isn't on there now! Like I know how to fix it anyway!!!! So I called all my neighbors. No one had a scanner.

Then I called the Richards and Will scanned and emailed the license for me after I loaded up all the half-dressed kids in the car and drove over there. Brooks kept calling to see how things were coming and I just wanted to say, "Don't you know I'm in the middle of the coolest While-You-Were-Out-HGTV project ever?!!?" But I didn't. Will got the email sent.

It's now 7:30 the the kids still haven't eaten, poor things. So what do you make on a day like this?

Corndogs and apples, of course! Eaten on a fun picnic tablecloth on the kitchen floor (since the dining room table is covered with all the pictures from the living room walls and it's raining outside!). The kids loved it. THEN........ I pulled out my plan B at 7:30........
Camden finally got to watch his new movie he got for his b-day. I find this picture funny because Aleeya is actually sitting there as if she would even WATCH a movie for longer then 20 seconds! And true to form, she got up and left right after the picture was taken.
Long story short.........if you call THIS short..........I got it all painted, floor scrubbed in there from all the dripped paint and paint put away by midnight.
I accomplished the plan, it just came about in a different way and time table.
But isn't that how are lives are anyway?

I'm STILL wondering on the color though, even if it IS my favorite color. (Not enough to change it though considering we still need to paint the ceiling from the hole we patched) I think I'll get used to it though. I like it in the day light, but not so much at night. Maybe it'll be better when the pictures are all up on the walls.......that brings me to my next project before Brooks gets home.

Seriously, I AM clean

Quick "Blah" update.......

I feel back to normal. YAY. Thanks to: 1) a completely mopped house (I only have wood floors)

2) ALL my walls/floorboards washed. The finger prints, food prints, car prints were unbearable

3) and I did everything on my list that I knew would make me feel better EXCEPT watch a movie because my DVD player STILL isn't here.

4) my most awesome friend Amanda brought me over a plate full of brownies after reading my blog post! She's the best.

So anyway, check out this picture, what do you see?

That is all the CRAP I swept off the boy's room floor. Seriously, I clean. Infact their floor was mopped and swept last Saturday, and THIS is 4 days of boys. I have an explanation for all this junk though

The dirt- perfectly understandable because that happens to be the dirt that Camden had put down Bronson's undies, but when Bronson changed his undies it came out all over the floor. See?

The wrappers/balloons- Camden's b-day party on Saturday with pinata goods

The legos- no toys are allowed upstairs, let alone in their room EXCEPT legos (I don't want them mixed with every other toy in the house) but the rule is while they're playing with them, they have to clean them up. If they don't and they're on the ground, they go in the trash. EVERY time I sweep more up, I just smile. Whoever developed legos must have the hardest feet EVER and can stand stepping on them.

The rest- crayons, papers, magazine inserts are just random things Aleeya carries around the puts where she pleases.........because she's the boss.

But really, when I put this all in a big pile and checked it out.....it's just gross. But it also has my cute, adventurous, dirty, treat-eating boys written all over it and they're ALL mine.........

and I like that.

Blah!

You know those days when you are just "Blah!"? and you can't snap out of it? and so you decide to blog about it? (me either.....) But hypothetically, if I DID feel like that, this would be why:

-Mother-in-law just left, and I always feel a little bummed

-wore some jean capris yesterday and had my boy ask me why I wear capris that are so tight and that I needed to buy some new ones that fit (thanks.)

-Whenever I look down at my toenails that need painting, my double chin gets in the way

-I just REALLY want to watch a movie. It's been FOREVER, and we haven't had a DVD player that works (or a TV for that matter) for 7 weeks.

-have to go pay for 2 library books that got left in D.C.

-I'm wearing orange, because it's the first clean shirt (that fits) that I grabbed and I look horrible in orange!

- the neighbor's pool has moss crap all in it, so we can't swim!

-my arms are too big to wear short sleeved shirts that are above my bicep.

-Couldn't go on a walk yesterday because the stroller was in the van that I didn't have.

-my baby is all stuffed up and can't get over it (for the past 3 weeks) and it makes sleeping harder and eating harder.

-haven't seen my hubby in 36 hours and will be 48 by the time I do.

-didn't have a car to get out yesterday and everytime I went outside to play baseball with the boys I got eaten by mosquitos even though I was covered in spray

-I smell the dog's poop somewhere in the house, but I STILL haven't found it yet.

So, what's my solution you ask? Step 1- Blog about it........actually that really doesn't do anything for me, but at least I get to sit on my fatness for a little longer.

Step 2- we're going to the library to get new books, so I can STILL sit on my fatness, but snuggle my little ones

Step 3- you would THINK I would say exercise, but I'm not going to the gym until I can take my baby, and that's not until Sep. 2nd. So maybe I'll just do some squats and go on more sweaty walks.

Step 4- I need to go serve someone, that always makes me feel better.

Step 5- I am going to buy a gallon of paint so I can paint our living room and have a project do to while Brooks is out-of-town this weekend (by then my DVD player might have arrived and I'll go to Redbox and get a few nice chick flicks)

Step 6- MOP MY FLOORS. I just love the feeling of that on my feet. Lame, I know

Step 7- shave my legs. If you're a girl, you KNOW that just makes you feel on top of the world. (We females are a peculiar gender)

And lastly, lose myself in a good ol' scripture study during the kid's naptime. Then I'll remember that all of the above complaints are really quite miniscule in the whole scheme of things that I have someone who knows how I feel and knows how to make me feel better. Phew, I'm done.

Iris' Blessing Day!!!!

Here the special princess is with Grandma before going to church.

First of all, no need to comment on how HOT Brooks looks in this picture, I know.

Here Iris is with the Priesthood menfolk. We got her asleep and THANKFULLY she stayed during the blessing because she's been so stuffed up and pitiful.

Iris with Grandma and R.A.

I love how Aleeya is just lost in the background without Grandma and R.A. giving her attention.

This picture was taken BEFORE Iris found out that we invited 16 people from Brooks' work and our neighbors to come to her blessing.......and NONE of them showed up. :)
But still, to get a nice sleepy smile from her even after being sick, just makes my day.
The dress was made in Brazil. I got it there when I was a teenager and have saved it for this very day! She looked like an absolute ANGEL in it.

5....or 6?

It just dawned on me that my title sounds like a pregnancy announcement... but since it's OBVIOUSLY not, let me explain.

Camden turned 5 on Sunday, August 2nd!!!!!

But we had his party in Saturday. Then on Sunday when we kept calling him the birthday boy he was convinced he had another one, so now he was 6. Smart kid.

Anyway, he had a "super fun" birthday party. He knew who he wanted to invite, the Scotts and the Haines. (Check out the 7 boys.....and Aleeya) :)He LOVED his fancy super-dooper box cake! :) He wanted a blue Star Wars cake. So it's blue and he got Star Wars figurines on it. He couldn't have been happier.
For his pinata he wanted Darth Vader, "so we could whack him with our light sabors".
And that's what he got. Here's what it looked like before I covered it with newspaper and paint. Talk about a good use of a pizza box!

And it is soooooooo hard to get a good picture of something ALL black, so I brightened it up so the wall behind it, is almost blinding. I do have to say though I LOVED having a pinata that was just all one color and I didn't have to add details.

And usually on birthday posts the Mom writes something like, "We love you Camden!" or something like that.....but honestly, this kid is the best.

If I could pick one kid to have home with me that would be the "easiest", it would be him!

(Who would have thought I'd be saying this 3 years ago?!?!?!?)

And yes Camden, WE DO LOVE YOU!!!!