Drywall & underlayment can excite a girl!

All I can say is: MY HUSBAND IS AMAZING!!! I love him with all my heart and I am thankful for him every second of my life. From the moment I met him he has been by my side making my world a little better. I adore him. He is such a good, good man and I would be lost without him in my life. Everytime I see him with his work goggles on- he takes my breath away! He's been working so hard on our kitchen for the past few weeks. He patched the wall last week and finished laying 2 layers of underlayment last night. Did I mention he works 10 hour days? That's he's ward mission leader? In school full time? A wonderful Daddy to 4 kids? The sweetest husband who goes out to the shed in the pouring rain at 11:30 at night, just to get me an icecream cone? A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!

I have running water again!

Before the kitchen exploded, I thought of myself as a grateful person, always thanking the Lord for modern miracles such as: washing machines, dryers, advil, toilets, hand sanitizer, dishwashers, cars, microwaves, epadurils, and chocolate. But now, after not having running water in the kitchen for the longest time- I got a tiny glimpse of how difficult it must have been for those pinoeer women to make food for their families. I just wanted to say thank you Lord for blessing me with water again- I have definatly taken a lot for granted.

M & M's...

Dad, I think the girls are following in my footsteps!
(When I went to Hawaii with my Dad, he took a zillion pictures of me next to all these silly statues. Now the girls want me to take pictures of them too. Here they are at Walgreens at Albertson's posing just like their Mama used to do!)

Fun at the park...

When Tristin came home from school he asked if we could walk to the park. It was perfect weather and I needed to try out my new yard sale stroller that I picked up for $ 5.00! (And no, I didn't bother to do the girl's hair...)

This is a breastfeeding post, so Jared & Dad- don't read...

***I only know 2 men that look at my blog- my Dad and Jared Pratt- so I'm warning you- stop reading now***

Over the past 6 months I've laughed out loud as I've caught myself "multi tasking" while breastfeeding. I know I'm not the only Mom who:

*Nurses while on the computer/ blogging
*Nurses while crafting
*Nurses while talking on the phone
*Nurses while making dinner
*Nurses while picking up the house
*Nurses while visiting teaching
*Nurses while taking a bath
*Nurses on the side of the road , in the car while yard sale-ing
*Nurses while eating out
*Nurses while sleeping
*Nurses while going to the bathroom (Ok, maybe I'm the only one)
*Nurses while laying on the hammock
*Nurses while watching The Office
*Nurses while making snacks
*Nurses at the dinner table
*Nurses while your tax lady is over
*Nurses at the park
*Nurses while going fishing with 2 poles in hand

I just had to laugh at my amazing breastfeeding skills! Who knew? What are some of yours???

A family picture...

Max took a picture of the fam on Sunday, and the kids had to have their 'silly picture."

Going Fishing...

Over the past year I have adopted a motto that I think the universe could/should practice a little more often: "IT ISN'T ABOUT ME." Meaning, when I'm too tired to go the park and it's 70 degrees out and the kids have been in the house all day and they've asked polietly 500 times- I say to myself, " Emily, this isn't about you being tired, besides, you're always exausted. This is about your kids wanting to go run outside, play on the swings and try despretely to cross the monkey bars by themselves. Another example: Me not wanting to make dinner. It isn't about me not being creative enough to whip something up or about the mess it will make or how long it will take- it's about feeding my family! it's about me signing up to be a Mother and doing what I'm supposed to do! I'm noticing that about 90% of the things I do in my life, are things that I have no desire to do, no ambition to complete or what I would likely be doing if I had free time. I mean, who really enjoys doing 5 loads of laundry a day? My point is sometimes we have to forget about ourselves and just do something for someone else because of the joy it will bring them. We are such selfish people and rarely put our needs last and other's first. So, remember, when those little hands are pulling on your shirt to go to the park and you are so tired you can't remember what day of the week it is, pack them up and go play. You'll always be tired. There will always be laundry to fold, but pretty soon those little hands won't be there tugging on your shirt to play- they will be gone, and you'll be standing on your sparkling clean floor wondering where the time went.

(This was written for me to re read a 1000 times a day...)

A day with the cousins...

Sunday after church, we drove up to Idaho City to celebrate 3 of the cousins birthday's! The kids had so much fun playing together outside in the creek behind their house. They were almost in tears as we had to make the long trip back home. Happy Birthday Andrew, Saeli & Caprial- we love you!

The dry-out is complete!

I was excited to hear last night that the dry out was complete, so we could get started on the kitchen. Our goal for today is to get the wall reinsulated and patched. Lowes, here we come...

119 canning jars today...

I am absoultly obsessed with yard sales. I count down the days each week until I can go again, and my kids are so used to being out the door by 8:00AM Friday & Saturday's that it's funny. Today was a good day for jars. I spent a little more than I like to, but the sweet little old lady had so many and I couldn't leave without buying them all ($ 2.00 a dozen. I like to get them for .10 each, but once in awhile you have to support the cause!) I bought 8 boxes/dozen from her and 23 from another lady for $ 2.00, so it was a good day. That gives me 149 bought this yard sale season so far. (Not to mention another 8 boxes out in the shed! Oh, how I love canning season!)

A happy girl...

Willow is an amazing baby, I really have no idea how Trav and I got so lucky with 4 incredible kids, but we did. Here she is trying out the swings for the first time.

A perfect day to go to the park...

The kids and I were out the door at 7:23 AM this morning to grab some FREE pop at Albertson's and hit some yard sales. They were such great troopers as I drove around for hours finding bargins, so we stopped at the park before heading home. The weather was beautiful and the kids had fun running around...

A picnic at the park...

The other night Trav made a bunch of peanut butter sandwiches and we were off to the park to have dinner. The kids had fun playing...

One day I will laugh...

I know the day will come when I look back at this unfortunate event and laugh like crazy, but until that moment arrives, I am not having fun. Although I love the smell of bleach, it doesn't mean I enjoy bleaching my tub every time I need to wash dishes. One day I will laugh...

Let it rain...

Last week when I was feeding Willow, I was standing in the kitchen with my bare feet. As I was standing in a place I had stood hundreds of times before, I thought, what is that? I ran my foot back and forth over the raised mound with this insain look on my face, asking myself, has it been here the whole time and I'm just now noticing it? No. I thought. I have washed this floor on my hands and knees for 2 1/2 years- I know every dent, cut and imperfection, this was definatly NOT there before. I went on feeding Willow and then onto my other 100 chores that comes with having 4 kids, until I noticed another mound in front of the dishwasher. I stopped and said, "what is going on? It can't be the dishwasher. It just can't. So the next night when Trav commented on the crazy floor, I said, " I know. I was going to tell you. I'm glad I'm not going crazy!" (because apart of me questioned my sanity, imagine that!)So, with a parent/teacher confrence meeting to be to in 20 minutes, Trav moved the dishwasher to discover what no home owner wants to find: water damage! So, to make a long story longer, I went into panic mode calling everyone and anyone who I thought could help us. I went out on the porch and almost started crying. I can't take anything else right now, I thought. After drowning in self pity for 3 minutes, I got up, dusted myself off and went back inside to be a Mom and wife. I told myself, Em, there are people dying. There are families waiting for military members to come home, there are missing children every where and familes losing their minds over it, there are people starving right here in the US and other countries, there are people without homes, food, clothing, cars, family, friends or help of any kind. There are Mother's losing babies, fathers losing jobs and a world that is falling apart- and you are really whining over a ruined kitchen? So with life in perspective, I cleaned up dinner, hand washed a billion dishes, put Pj's on kids, brushed teeth, said prayes and kissed my beautiful babies goodnight. As I got ready for the night, I just shook my head and thought, but I can't change what is happening around the world. I can't make it stop. I can't make it any better, and darn it, this isn't what I wanted. I just wanted everything to be ok and now it isn't. And now there is water everywhere, and who knows if there is mold. Are we safe? Will the kids be affected? How much will this cost? We don't have the money. Do I really have to hand wash all these dishes? And boil water to do it in? (Those poor, amazing pioneer women!) So the next day, my friend Lisa said, "Em, call your insurance company!" Which I did and then by Friday, things started to get rolling. Chris came out to look at the damage. Our adjuster came out yesterday and then the guys were here until 8:30 last night removing a part of the floor, cabinets & counter tops. We have a fan on it for 3-5 days and then we will go from there. It just boils down to being HUGE-LY inconvient. So, while people are dying around the world, I am complaining that they tore up our cute red cabnits that Trav and I worked SOOO hard on, I don't have running water, my cute floor is going away, there's a huge hole in my floor and wall, we don't have a dishwasher,I have to wash our dishes in the bath tub now, our kitchen contents are now covering my couch, and who knows how long this entire process will take! I'm just frustrated!!! (But yes, eventually we will get a new floor that isn't soaked in water, I'll hopefully get my black & white checkerd vinyl back, I'll get new cabinets and counter tops and life will be perfect again!) Thanks for letting me vent, I'm just struggling with everything out of order!!!!

Bye, Bye, quiet little predictable life...

So, I'll admit it... I have a type A personality. I like things clean. I like order. I have to have things organized. I do not do well with change. I panic over the unknown. I have 100 different lists. I don't do well with toys on the floor. I color code my clothing. I adore the vaccuum lines in the carpet as much as my Grandfather. I am a planner, and I plan about 2-3 months out depending on the event. I worry about everything. I stress about everything.Things have to be perfect or close to it. I would die without my hand sanitizer. I don't want to share my water bottle with anyone, but would if we were dying in the desert. I can't sit and relax. I have to be doing something, helping someone or cleaning something. I hate dishes in the sink. I hate sticky hand prints on my walls. I like to know what to expect. I rarely try anything if I know I will fail at it. I like things to be predictable. I have huge anxiety over being late and I don't do well when diswashers leak for 2 1/2 weeks without telling me!
So, there is my confession. That's the real, not very nice person that I am.
Here are the last photos of my kitchen before they started tearing it apart.

Chelsea's baby Shower...

We had Chelsea's baby shower on Saturday and it was great! She had tons of friends and family there who spoiled her with adorable clothes, toys and baby stuff. Everything turned out wonderful and I was almost brought to tears as I stood back and watched her finally having her moment. I cannot even count the baby showers she has attended, the hospital visits she has made, the home visits after friends brought their babies home, the meals she has taken familes and the showers she has thrown, all while trying to hide her pain and sadness over the years. I cry now, because I adore this girl. She's like a sister to me and it has killed me to watch Shane and her struggle for so many years to have a family. I think of Shane as a brother who I want to protect and sheild from pain, so the joy I feel now as they prepare for their twins, is undescrible. I am beyond thrilled. I am like that over bearing Mother who wants to know every detail, everything that happened at the Dr. appointment, every kick and movement... I just love these two and know they will win the most amazing parents award (we'll see how they do at being on time though!!! Just kidding. Actually, no, I'm being seroius!) I didn't take any pictures at the shower, so here's a tiny peek at some of her decorations. (Christy is on the left and about to have her little guy in 8 days or less, good luck hot Mama!!!!)

When Audra comes to town....

One of my best friends, Audra, was in town last week and she and her 4 beautiful kids stoped by for the afternoon. It was WONDERFUL to sit and talk for hours and just watch the kids play together. It was great to catch up, to see how the kids had grown in such a short time, to laugh and just relax. Audra is such an amazing, talented, loving, sweet, thoughtful & giving person and I miss her like crazy everyday. I am grateful for our memories of painting bedrooms, having yard sales, going thrift store shopping, hanging out until 2:00 in the morning, our road trip to Seattle, pulling each other up a hundred times when we were falling apart,eating chocolate chip cookies, helping her wash her downstairs floor (one of us would spray, the other would mop- it was A LOT of floor)having Daisy's 1st birthday party at her house, trusting her with my babies, finding cute green polka dot blankets with her after Christmas (Which we both still have), visiting her 100 different houses, laughing, crying, helping and relying on each other for so long and on and on... I am gratful for our years of friendship and for having a safe place to turn when I need to. I love you Audra and I think of you everytime I turn on my kitchen light, wear the temple dress you gave me and wrap Willow in her adorable blanket. Thank you for being my wonderful friend over the years, I miss you sweet girl...