Fun Times As a MOM!!

I am working on Emmy Kate's baby quilt!


Well...I went to Tanner's last parent teacher conference a couple of nights ago. I definitely will not miss going to them!! He usually always gets very good reports from the teachers but once in a while a teacher will not like him because he knows what to much for his own good (that means he knows more then the teacher or will disagree with a teacher and they don't like that!). We have always tried to teach Tanner that if he doesn't agree with a teacher or has a different opinion then he needs to be respectful in expressing those feelings but once in a while I think a teacher can become very offended by his opinions because he has a very strong way of swaying others to take his side....that is why he loved debate so much! Oh well now his college professors will have to deal with that wonderful personality trait of his I wish them luck!



Emma on the other hand notified me last week that she had absolutely no desire to graduate from high school! I am not quite sure how to deal with her lack of caring about school except to just love her. I hope that this is a stage (although she seems to have been stuck in this stage for 3 years now) that she will out grow very quickly. My only leverage I feel I have is her desire to get her drivers license. I told her I would not pay for drivers ed unless she brings her grades up because I will not pay for insurance unless she can get the good student discount!! Emma always has a different COW (crush of the week) which is fun to hear her talk about which boy she is finding interesting at the moment. Emma and Edna go down to the subway downtown every week to do homework (which I am sure is not done at all) to watch a couple of cute peanut butter and jelly boys (their code for hot guys) who work in the Karols Korn stand. They come home and report each week what was said and each week they get a little bit more bold and the conversations seem to get longer and longer with these two guys. I wonder what the boys are thinking about these two crazy girls who have taken an interest in them. Isn't it fun to be a teenager! I love Emma!!!!



Elle is doing great she too is absolutely boy crazy!! I don't think the boys she is eyeing are even aware of girls at this point but that doesn't stop her from going goo goo gaga over them. She is almost as tall as me and Emma. Another inch and she will have us beat. She seems to be controlling her roller coaster emotions a little bit better lately but she is still known to have great outbursts of anger and annoyance with Tanner and at times me. I just keep trying to teach her how to express her feelings without blowing up at any little thing and she seems to be doing a bit better with it. I have another 7 wonderful years with her and I am sure it will be pure joy!!!



I sent off Katies special gift I made her!!! Finally I can talk about it. I made my first quilt!! It was so much fun to make and I have started a new hobby!! I love the fabrics and designs that you can create with quilting. It is so relaxing to just sew and create something so beautiful. I love it! I have my next 4 quilts already planned out in my mind. My problem is finding the time to dedicate to it. I wish I could work on it daily but that is just not possible with everything going on in my life. The girls and I are going to Utah over spring break to see the new baby and attend the blessing. We are very excited to see our brand new niece!!! And to see everyone else too.

March Madness

My great D.I. Team!!

Hello everyone out there in blogger land! I have had a crazy week and am so thankful it is over. I have been helping with the D.I. (Destination Imagination) program in Elle's school as a team coach. When I signed up for this position in Oct. I thought it was a one day 2 hours a week deal but as we have gotten closer and closer to the tournament date March 7th it has started to consume all my "extra" time (if there is such thing) since January we have been practicing 4 days a week 2 hours each day. I am burned out!! But it is finally over Hurray!!! As a team we did terrific. It was an interesting journey working with 7 very strong and different personalities but they were all able to learn how to compromise and come together in the end and it was a very positive experience.



I am done with Katie's baby gift!! I will be putting it in the mail tomorrow. I can't yet revile what it is because it is a surprise and I don't want her reading this and finding out before she actually gets it. Next week I will post pictures of what I did. Just know that I found a new hobby and loved making it!!! I am going to start making another one tomorrow that is how much I enjoyed doing it. I love this new hobby.



We are almost to spring...if someone would just tell the weather man to quit sending snow and cold our way I would be most happy! We had a beautiful week last week with highs at 50 degrees! But today it snowed :( at least at this point in the year we know that the snow will melt instead of be on the ground for another 5 months :)



I hope to have news next week about Tanner and school acceptance or rejections (we hope it is the first) I will be making a trip out west to good'ole Utah the last week of March for spring break. I think I will be taking the girls with me. I can't wait to see my new beautiful baby niece Emmy Kate!!! Well I must run...until next time :)

A Night of Fun and Family and Friends!

Emma Kate took a few minutes out from reading one of her MANY vampire novels to enjoy FHE

Elle and Caiden hanging out during Family Home Evening.

Heather, Krystine and Caiden sharing fun times!

Bali, Elle's friend is writing down goals during FHE.

Tanner's object lesson involved tying Elle up with sins.

Elle had a great time trying to do things while all tied up!

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!