I am a Canner.... Not

One day I was talking to my girl Cristan on the phone. We were chatting about our usual "friend" stuff when she started telling me about how awesome she is because she learned to "can" fruit. She had been taught by a friend down in the tiny town where she lives. I told her that I would love to learn how to do that someday.... to which she replied "I'm coming up there tomorrow, I'll pick you up some fruit and we'll do it, okay?" She's such a good friend. She forces me to be "homemakerish" ;)

I was a bit nervous, you see, I've talked about my many challenges before, one of which is being a "normal" homemaker and that includes anything in that venue. I was talking to my mom later that day and I told her about the canning thing. She knew I had been wanting to make some freezer jam (but I can't do it by myself, I'd probably blow-up my kitchen!) so she offered to come over and help me do that while we were canning and we'd get it all done in one day.

So the next day we (we as in- my mom and Cris) did it. We canned peaches and made strawberry freezer jam. And the only things that went wrong were my fault including, but not limited to:

- unknowingly putting the wrong amount of strawberries into the blender, and then actually using that for a batch.

-putting the pectin into the bowl of sugar instead of into the bowl of blended strawberries.

-dumping a whole package of pectin into a bowl of strawberries instead of "stirring it in slowly"

-In all the confusion going on in my kitchen, I started mixing the sugar into a bowl of berries that wasn't ready, instead of the other bowl of berries that WAS ready (okay, my mom actually did this, but I'm sure it was my fault somehow...)

-I put a batch of peaches in the boiling water to blanch and then forgot about them. When I remembered to take them out, they were pretty much mush. Of course, I still used them.

Needless to say, it was a pretty hilarious morning. I'm so glad my mom and Cristan are patient enough with me and allow my "homemaker challenged" self become more experienced.

Aren't you all proud of me? I think you should be. :)

My Dancing Girls

Laylah and Daphne started dance up again last week. This is Daph's first year and she was so excited. They both love it so much. They are my darling dancing girls!

Happy Birthday Becca!

My gal Becca had a birthday last week. I was trying to do this on her birthday, but if you know me at all, you know I am late everywhere I go and with everything I do. You either accept me for it, or hate me for it. Becca has learned to accept me and love me for it. I wanted to do a post on her because she is one of my very dearest, most supportive, knows everything about me, friends.

Becca and I met in jr. high at Skyline Highschool cheer tryouts. She had just moved to SLC from Arizona and we did not become instant friends. We both made the cheer squad and for the first few months we did NOT get along. We both thought the other annoying and bratty. Isn't it funny how that always turns into the best friendships? We got stuck together on second lunch while all of our other friends had first lunch. We were forced into friendship and have been inseperable ever since.

Becca and I have been through so much together. 4 years of cheer tryouts, competitions, camps, etc. boyfriends, vacations, graduations, dances, parties, groundings, getting in trouble, crazy friends, breakups, blind dates, and finally marriage, kids, and families. She has truly ALWAYS been there for me, and I would hope she'd say the same of me. I can rely upon her for anything, I can call her for anything, and I can tell her anything. When I need a break, I can call her and have her watch my kids, and she does the same of me. She's been a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. She is a one of a kind friend.

Since we've gotten married and had kids, our friendship has only grown. We do everything together. When our kids were smaller, we had weekly activites (different for summer and winter) and we saw each other nearly every day. We are the kind of friends that go grocery shopping and clothes shopping together. Since our kids have gotten older and are now in school, we don't get to do as many fun things, but we still see each other almost every day at the gym at 5 in the morning.

Becca's husband Brian is going to be a dentist, so next year she'll be moving away. It will be so hard not living so close. I know I will cry my eyes out when my friend leaves. It will be a long four years. Hopefully they'll come back to Utah, but who knows? All I know is, I have a forever friend. I love you Becca!!

P.S. Funny story- I have hundreds of pictures of me and Becca from highschool and after but as I went through to pick out a few to post on here, I realized that none of them were appropriate. We were either in very immodest clothes, or swimsuits, or doing something in the picture that was innappropriate. I hardly have any of us together after we were married and of course, I couldn't find any of those. Wow, we've come a long way Becca.... good for us ;)

The Green Smoothie

I drink one of these every day. Yes, it is as disgusting as it looks. BUT yes, it is incredibly good for me. Here's what it has in it on the average day:

2 cups spinach

1/2 of a tomato

1/2 cup carrots

1 scoop protein

1 cup skim milk

1/2 cup apple juice

2 tblspn whole, raw flaxseed

6 large frozen strawberries

I grind it all up to a nasty, smooth greenish (brownish somedays) looking substance in my trusty Vitamix (available at Costco), pour (well, it doesn't really pour, it more sludges out and slops) into my biggest hot pink cup, and then force myself to drink the nasty concoction.

Why do I do it, you ask?

Because I feel that it helps me to be a healthier person. One green smoothie at a time.

(I give you permission to go throw-up now :)

A Fun Day and Good Times

A few days ago I got together with some friends in my ward and we had such a fun day chatting, eating, and painting some crafts. I am so grateful for good friends. There were 13 kids running around at Corrines house- she's a saint! We were there for about 4 hours and I wasn't even ready to leave when I had to go home. Thanks girls, for the fun day!


me, Corrine, and Sam (Joanie had to leave early)

As I was gathering kids up and getting ready to leave, we found all the girls doing this:

It was a good day.

Our Jack-O-Lantern and Other Funny Stuff

We have our very own Jack-O-Lantern at our house. Her name is Laylah, and she has now lost 6 teeth (and counting...). The Tooth Fairy has only forgotten 3 out of those 6 times (hey, 50% isn't bad... I'm great, aren't I? :), but one wasn't her fault. The babysitter (my sister Kaylie- we love you Kay!) was neglectful in letting me know that Laylah had lost a tooth one night when she was babysitting so I could call the Tooth Fairy and let her know she needed to pay a visit to our house! Laylah hasn't ever been too upset, and (shockingly) she still believes in Miss Tooth Fairy.


Baron is getting to the age where he just needs one nap a day. I've been transitioning him from 2 to 1 for a couple weeks now. If he doesn't get that one nap, he can't function past 5 o'clock. The other day, we missed his nap, and around 5:15, this was him:

Falling asleep during dinner. He was sleeping while he was eating, and then he kept falling and then jerking up and crying. It was so funny until Andy took pity on him and just put him to bed. He slept for almost 15 hours straight, not waking up until 7:45 the next morning! (I had it on video, but for some reason Blogger isn't allowing me to upload. If I can, I will later)


Yesterday I had to up my dosage on my medication again. For a couple days every time I have to do that I feel absolutely horrible. It makes me so sick and I get hideous headaches. It hit me all of the sudden yesterday afternoon and I turned a movie on for the kids and then stumbled to my bed. I woke up to Daphne bringing me in some "hot soup and tea" in purple dishes- my favorite color. She also covered me up with her beloved "pink blankie". She rubbed my feet for me and sang me songs. She is the sweetest little thing and I love her so much

Lastly, we have Jonah. He drew this picture at school and brought it home. I was mortified. I hope his teacher didn't see it! Andy and I had a hard time not laughing as we explained to him that he CANNOT draw pictures of people without clothing on. He said he wouldn't do it anymore. I hope this is normal for a little boy to do?? Curiosity? Something....?? I don't know. I sure do love that kid though. Seriously.

Happy Today Because...

- I've already been to the gym

-My laundry is completely done- as in, linens, towels, AND clothes. It feels awesome!

-My house is clean

-My mom is coming over today

-5 out of 6 kids will be in school all together today for 2 1/2 hours (just what will I do with my time? :)

- My family

-Talking to my sister on the phone

-I'm going to make a delicious chocolate cake today (I've been craving one for a few days now!)

-Tomorrow is Friday and I get to go on a date with my hubby

-I don't feel sick or have a headache (that will change.... I haven't taken my meds yet :)

-I have a new shirt to wear today!


What makes you happy?

Daphne's First Day of Preschool

Daphne was so excited to start preschool today. She calls it the "Little Preschool" because it's not the same as Laylah's and Jonah's old preschool (she'll go there when she's 4) If you recall, it's a bunch of moms that I'm friends with and we're rotating teaching at our houses. She had the BEST time. I'm so glad she and Javis have this to do, they already love it so much and are asking when they get to go back.

Labor Day at Noon

We had a L-A-Z-Y day yesterday. It was wonderful.... Jammies still on at noon, and playing with sidewalk chalk.

Daphne's "mouse"

Here's Laylah on her bed with no sheets (laundry day)... she's in trouble because she pushed Jonah off the tramp. Hmmmmm...

Mother and Husband and Life

Well, wow. What a weekend. It started out on Friday when I recieved a call from the Endocrinologist office. They called me after only 3 days of "reviewing my file" to make me an appointment. They told me it would be 2-3 weeks of "review time" originally. And then they said it would probably be 6 weeks after that to get an appointment. And my appointment is for the 29th of this month. They told me they needed to get me in and that was the first available date, and that I needed to take it (and it's at 7:15 AM-do you think they're squeezing me in?!). So I did. And then I got a little nervous. Why were they getting me in so quickly?

My mom called me that afternoon and I had a mini breakdown (well, I'd like to think it was only mini) I went on and on to her about all the things I had going on, all the things that were stressing me out, all the things I was worried about (hey, what are moms for, right?) and she just sat and listened, said all the right things, and of course, sympathized. She's amazing. I love my mom.

Why do we ( as moms and wives) think we have to be superwomen all the time? I told my mom that I didn't feel like I could complain to anyone- ever, and she asked me why. I don't know why. But here it is. I am stressed out. I have a lot going on. I am worried about a lot of things right now. And I seriously feel like crap (I would use a stronger word, but this is a family blog ;) about 90% of the time because of my medication. If you ask, and I tell you I'm fine, I'm probably lying to you. I guess I just don't want to try and make myself seem more important, or draw attention to myself. I guess I think that this life is hard, and SO many people have hard things in their lives that I shouldn't be complaining about such small, insignifigant things. So I try not to. Except to my amazing, wonderful, helpful mom. Did I mention that I love her? Well, I do. I really really do.

Then there's this guy:Isn't he soooooo good lookin? I sure do love him too. After my "mini" breakdown, he announced that we were going shopping (a sure cure to all that ails you) He found a babysitter (my lovely sister Kaylie- thanks lovely), got pizza for the kids, and we were off. He wined me (okay, diet coked me), dined me, and romanced me at The Gateway. We had such a fun night. I got some new clothes and a new purse AND a Haagan Daz ice cream cone (heaven!) We strolled around hand in hand, listened to some guy playing his guitar and singing (and gave him a few bucks and also made him laugh right in the middle of a song! whoops) and enjoyed each other. Our lives are stressful right now, and it was so nice to just have each other to worry about for a few hours. Like I said- I love my husband, and I'm also pretty crazy about him- and he makes me laugh more than any person I've ever met. Later that night, he almost made me pee my pants laughing at Target... true story. But thats all you need to know about that :)

Uh-Oh

This is what I hear. "Uh-Oh". I have left Bear at the table alone, in hopes that he might finish his dinner without distraction.

No such luck."Ewwww" he says. (which it's really not. Who doesn't like nachos for dinner?!)

Our silent vacuum cleaner/ mop. (Look how dirty my chair is.... grubby little hands tend to do that :)
Great job pup.

Nothin' a little Tub Time can't fix.He cleans up pretty good, eh?Freshly lotioned bum. Mmmmm, smells good. :)

This Morning...

...when I was dropping the kids off at school, I noticed the sprinklers were on. They were spraying the sidewalk that Jonah has to walk to to get to his classroom door. They were on because we were actually ( miracle of miracles) ealry today. When I showed him and told him to run through them really fast so he didn't get wet he replied:

"Damn!"


I laughed.

Aren't You Jealous....

... that I get smothered in hugs and kisses by this cute boy all day, every day?

I know you are. :)

*photos courtesy of Jonah