early morning seminary and snow daze!

This is my 5 maybe 6 or 7 loads of clean clothes waiting for me to fold and put away! I should get off the computer and do that instead of blogging but blogging is so much more fun!!

Oh my gosh!! I finally have a minute to sit down and write! My life has been on over-drive for the last few weeks. I need a vacation!

I wanted to share a story about Tanner and Elle. They both make me laugh very hard (Emma does to but mostly in a quite way). Okay so the kids (Tanner and Emma) get up around 5:15 every morning to attend seminary (youth church class, for those who aren't familiar with it) so they can leave at 6 am and pick other kids up and make it on time 6:10 until 7:o5. So Tanner came bursting into my bedroom yelling at me first thing this morning dripping wet and wearing only his towel. "Mom, Mom! Where are my clean under ware and an undershirt???? (I have been so busy that I only wash clothes, forget about folding and putting away...besides my kids are very capable of doing their own laundry if it gets bad enough!!)...anyways I did have a load of clean whites sitting in a basket on my floor waiting for me to get to (it is still on the floor as I write but I would rather write). I thought he was using a urgent voice and seemed very annoyed. I told him to calm down and where he could find his clean undies on his way out of the room I heard him bang on Emma's bedroom door she moaned from the other side and he let out a sigh of exasperation that I am sure the whole house could hear. As I lay there I thought it felt very early- probably too early! I glanced at my clock and it was only 4:50 in the morning! well even for Tanners standards that is just way to early to get up and ready for seminary. I walked down stairs to his room and said through the door, "Tanner do you realize what time it is?? " He replied "Yes mom why do you think I am freaking out? It is almost time to leave" "No Tanner it is not...it is only 4:50 in the morning you are freaking out for no reason!" Are you sure mom?" "Yes, Tanner" "No are you sure?" "Yes, tanner" then a huge long sigh rolled out of his mouth much for relief that he wasn't going to be late and the other because he realized that he was CRAZY!! I went and got back into bed (I had another hour before I got up to go walking) but sadly Tanner had ruined mine and Emma's peaceful sleep and slumber neither one of us was able to fall back to sleep! Thanks for the laugh Tanner!!! the more I think about his rushed, annoyed, and impatient morning the funnier it becomes to me!

Last week we had a snow day except that it didn't start snowing until about 1:00 pm. The school district thought that the snow storm was going to begin much earlier so they cancelled school for the day. The two older kids got up to go to seminary that morning but Emma (the great detective she is) found out school and seminary had been cancelled due to the snow storm that hadn't even arrived....I told the two kids to go back to bed. Elle had slept through this whole conversation (she doesn't get up until 7:30). Well I sleep in as did Tanner and Emma (they always close their bedroom doors so Elle didn't see them sleeping). Well Elle woke up around 9:00 (school starts at 9) and she quietly went about her business of playing on the computer. Around Oreo (the dog) started running down the hall to my bedroom it was 9;30 by this time I had gotten up and started walking down the hall as oreo and Elle both approached me she was running as fast as she could on her tippy toes to try to stop Oreo. She was very startled to see me coming down the hall and ran into my arms and said "Hi Mommy!" I asked her what she was doing because she was acting very strange. She said nothing and tried to act normal. She followed me out to the kitchen and we started talking and then she quietly asked me if she could miss school all day. I told her school was cancelled because it was a snow day (there was absolutely no snow falling at this time) and she didn't believe me. I told her again and she still didn't believe me. She asked me why the other kids had gone to school I told her if she went and checked on them she would find both of them fast asleep in their beds. finally she confessed to me that she woke up and thought that I was just sleeping in and if she kept quite enough that she would get to stay home because she would miss the bus and then it would be much to late for me to take her to school! She was trying to run after Oreo so she wouldn't lick me and wake me up! Elle makes me laugh so hard!

volunteer overload!

Hello everyone who follows my very interesting and exciting blog!! I wish more of you would make comments on my blog. I decided to write because it has been a while. I don't really have a lot to say although my mind seems be racing quit a bit lately. We are getting closer to doing foster care! Finally my background check came back, clean I might add!! I didn't have any worries I realized that it was taking a very long time for them to do the check...like 4 months long. We still don't have Scotts back yet but at least they are allowing us to go forward with home inspection! It has been a very long time since I had to child proof our home and this is the part I am not looking forward to. It has been kind of nice not to worry if one of my kids was going to die from ingesting some sort of cleaner! Oh well I guess it goes with the territory and I am the one asking to be a "mommy" again. I am getting really excited to do this as is everyone else in the family especially the girls. I hope it will be a great experience for us all as we learn to love those little ones that are in need of some stability, love and hope in their lives.

Tanner got another reply he was accepted into BYU Provo!! His seminary teacher was late in sending in his part of the application so it has effected his approval by pushing him back a semester he won't be allowed to attend until Winter 2010 that is just 4 months later then he would have liked to go but we will see if he even accepts their offer...we still need to hear back from 3 other schools! We should now in another two weeks for sure and then he will have to make a quick decision because some of the schools require you to reserve housing quickly.

I have felt a bit overwhelmed with all my obligations lately....I have gotten myself in over my head with something I volunteered for at Elle's school. I only have another week left of it and I will be soooooo happy when it is over. I am a team manager for her destination imagination group and it is soooo time consuming! Next week is the tournament and then it will be all over!!! I am sorry to say this but I really hope they don't win because I just don't want to continue on with doing it!

Well I need to run...I have a dinner group coming over to my house tonight and I haven't cleaned any of my bathrooms, vacuumed, dusted, or started cooking anything! Bye for now!

Pictures from January and February

Emma Kate getting her hair done
Tanner with Katie night of "Heart Throb"

Quilting Group: our stake humanitarian project

Krystine and Emma getting hair colored.

Elle and our favorite little friend Caiden taking a nap!

Catching Up!

Well it has been quite a while since I have posted anything. I have been so busy with life that I have neglected my blog. I wanted to write about a couple of things though so I have finally found some time to sit down and write.

Tanner is starting to get his responses back from the colleges that he applied to. He has been accepted into BYU Hawaii. Hopefully he will hear soon from the other 4 schools that he applied to. It seems so weird to see him prepare to leave home to strike out on his own. I hope I have prepared him for what is to come but until you actually leave and start living on your own I guess that is when he will find out if he is ready for what life has to throw at him. I keep saying this in all my blogs but I am going to miss him so much. I try not to think about it often because it really does make me sad. I know he needs to live his life but I think I am just sad because I know in my heart that he won't be very close to home anymore. I am very glad that he wants to go explore the world and do great things but I will always miss him. Maybe I am starting to understand how my parents feel about me living so far from them. It doesn't seem to bother me to much to live in Minnesota and be so far away from the happenings of my family but I am sure it bothers my mom and dad.

Emma just got over a pretty harsh bout of the flu. She is the only one in the family that asked me if she could get the flu shot last fall. I didn't think it would be a problem....I feel pretty badly about that. She is now on the mend and very far behind in school now. She ended up missing 6 days of school. We are just at the beginning of the new semester and so now it will probably be a up hill battle to recover with her grades. I will be happy when Emma finishes school! Not because I want her to leave home or anything but because she just hates school and seems to just do enough to get by and then even that isn't enough.

Elle is going up way to fast for her own good. She is just 11 but is going on 16 (with Emma). I can't believe how boy crazy she is!!! Her mood swings are just out of control!!!! I told Tanner the other day I didn't know if I could make it through the next 8 years with her!! And I am not kidding!!!! He feels very sorry for me and I am sure a bit relieved to know he won't be around to see the fall out from all the fights and power struggles that will be taking place in this house in the next few years.

Well Katie just had her baby and she is soooo cute! I think they are going to end up naming her Emmy Kate! I am not sure if it is really after Emma Kate or if they just really like the name and want it to be a little different then Emma's name, although we call our Emma Emmy all the time. Emma is thrilled with the idea that her cousin is going to have the same name as her so that is great. I really wish I could have had 5 kids like Katie!

My Sister the "COPYCAT"

Where do I start today? I am getting a bit annoyed by my younger sister who shall remain nameless (if you even know me a little you may not have a hard time figuring out who I am talking about). I starting blogging last summer and so guess what??...that's right she had to start blogging! That is not even the bad part though. She copied (or stole which ever term you want to use) my whole blog background!! She copied every last detail!!!! My whole life I had to deal with this and I am finally getting sick and tired of it. She wishes she had a little bit of creativity in her but I think I have more creativity in my pinkie than she has in her whole body! I am sorry if God blessed me with that talent and gave me her share of it too. I feel like she has been copying me her whole life. She even admitted to me this Christmas that she was a copycat after I sent her my family pictures and then her family wore the same colors as we did because she just can't think of anything better to do. I don't know what to do about it? She needs to be her own person and find her own individuality because some day I am not going to be around for her to copy! Maybe after I die she will shortly follow me to heaven because she won't know what to do for family pictures that year.

December Pictures

Elle at her school Christmas assembly.

Elle and Emma showing all that sisterly love!

I think they were just happy to have the recital over!

Elle, Bridget (piano teacher), and Emma at the piano recital.

Sisters forever! Always having fun!

Elle is always having fun with her tongue!

Christmas morning...Tanner was not ready to face the morning

but Sandy, Scott and Emma were!

Christmas Eve with the missionaries.

Beautiful Emma

New Years Eve

Growing up is hard to do...for who? Mom or Child?

Well it has been a few weeks since my last blog and I have had a couple of requests for an updated blog...so here goes!

I feel really blessed right now. I have been afforded the privilege to be a stay at home mom for the majority of my kids life. Although I know that there have been many moments in my life when I have dreamed of going off to work and leaving the child rearing to someone else to handle, probably 99.9 percent of the time I have felt it a true privilege to have had the opportunity to be a stay at home mom! With Tanner leaving soon to go off to college I feel like the time I have had with him has been a huge blessing in my life and I hope he might feel the same way about having had his mom around. When I was 28 it was weird to hear older moms give their advice about how time fly by and before you know it your kids are all grown up and you are wishing for the days when the kids were driving you up a wall and you didn't have time to even jump in the shower let alone go to the bathroom alone! Now I am beginning to understand their advice because I find myself begging my kids to come to the bathroom with me to keep me company!! Boy do I miss the good'ole days! It is so true!! I know all my kids will be gone out of the house before I can blink and I am dreading those days just as much as I am looking forward to them. I feel so excited for my kids to grow up and achieve their dreams after all I have always encouraged them to do what ever might make them happy (especially if that meant being a Dr., Tanner! just kidding, Tanner!) but at the same time it also means letting go and allowing them to spread their wings and face the wonderful joys that await them even though that means I won't be by their side. I guess I just hope they don't forget their mom and how much she would love to have them come visit!

Phones...College (Not)...Pets (dog or cat that is the question)

Where do I start today? Lets see...how about the dreaded teenage cell phone account! I can feel for you Al! Cell phones....what a racket! Emma's is confiscated right now because of slipping grades. I would lay down some conditions to go along with the phone if I were you. Emma is now getting serious about doing her homework because she is going through with drawls! What kind of job does Kayla have to support her phone habit anyway? You are getting her started on it and then expecting her to pay for it in 6 months....with what moola?? I wouldn't allow her to take it to church or YW during the week because the girls are so disrespectful with their phones during lessons and activities they have no phone manners. Good luck with navigating teenage land!!!!!! It only gets better!

Tanner is the biggest procrastinator in all this earth!!! It is college application time and the deadline is looming HUGE right now. The problem is, to get into any respectable school you can't wait until the deadline you have to get your applications in the first week or two when the schools start to accept the applications not the last two weeks before the deadlines! Tanner has got it backwards....and now I am not sure if he will even get into any of his choice of schools. Only time will tell. He always loves to save things for the very last day of the deadline no matter what it is for.

Now lets talk pets! You need to just give into it Al! Aren't we willing to do just about anything for our kids happiness?? I am mean you just gave into the pressure of teenage bugging about cell phones and those things can do much more damage then any cat or dog will ever do in your house! Have you heard about all those kids in Utah and other places for that matter that share special pictures over their cell phones?? And you are worried about a little dog poop! Lets keep things in prospective. Let Lauren nurture her love of animals in a very good way...getting a little kitty won't hurt anything and they are better then dogs when you have to go out of town they don't have to be babysat like dogs. They are much better to potty train and they are calm and peaceful like you! What is the hang up about cats???

Okay I hope I haven't brought anyone to tears today!! I love all you who read my blog and may be having spasms right now. I know you can do it!! Just take some deep breaths and know that you can survive all things! I hope you all have a great Christmas...I will be missing you all on that special night of visiting with the family that is out on parole.

I say this all in joking...I know that what ever you decide to do about pets will be right for your family!

Love you all

fall pictures

I often go with the missionaries to teach the investigators. Sister Alki is from Japan and she is the best!! I will miss her when she returns to Japan.

This is the day I highlighted Emma's hair. It is always fun to spend 2 straight hours with Emma talking while I do her hair!

Elle had a fun skating day with her school on Halloween. Instead of having class parties they take the school to the local ice skating rink and party!

Christmas Is Coming The Goose Is Getting Fat And Lots of Parties Are Coming!

Can you believe I have already done 20 posts?? It is almost Christmas...14 days and counting. I have almost got all shopping done! I love Christmas with all the decorations and smells and glad tidings! I am going to miss my family this year but we are planning on a really fun Christmas Eve with the missionaries and some families in the ward that we are close to. The great thing about living outside of Utah and away from all those Mormons is your ward really does become your family.

We are planning a huge party for next Friday...probably 30 or more teenagers will converge on my home and it will be great. I love the youth of the ward and all my kids friends. We are planning on caroling and then lots of games and food afterwards to warm up.

I just got done Christmas decorating my friends house. It was beautiful. I love to decorate and especially Christmas. We are doing an exchange...she is going to give me massages...hour for hour. I already have put in 10 hours that means that I get 10 hours of massages!! If you even know me a little you know that I think I am getting the best end of this deal! But of course Ann thinks she is getting the best end. I love massages, I am always trying to get Tanner, Scott, Emma and even Elle to give me little shoulder rubs or feet or anything! My family is tired of me asking so they are just as happy that I made this little trade out!