We have a crawler!

It is offical, Roman is crawling! It's kind of sad when all these milestones are met. It's the last time I'll see them! I'm trying to soak it up and enjoy everything he is doing!

Getting sleepy...

The girl's and I were baking and I could tell Roman was getting tired. I tried to get pictures along the way! For some reason posting these in order was way too hard. I tried a billion times! Just imagine they are in order!)

Playing outside...

The other day the girl's wanted to go for a walk, so we went to check on Brother Greathouse. The girl's whizzed up and down the street on their scooters and the fresh air felt wonderful! It was great to see them playing in the back yard, even though it's still a crazy mess from Winter! Time to hose off all the toys, bikes, and play things soon!

Blessing bag update...

A few weeks ago we had the privilage of handing out our first "blessing bag." We were headed to the store, we saw a person, we swung around the block so we would be on their side, rolled down the window, handed it to him, said "Have a good day" smiled and drove away. The second experince did not go over so well. At all. Trav was on his way home from work the other day when he saw a man "in need." He was at a light with a few cars in front of him. He waved the man over and with his window down, held the bag out for him. The man took one look at it, threw his arms up in the air and started yelling a swearing at Trav! "I spent $ 7.00 to drive over here and that's all I get! #%@$, %$@@, and %$#@!" the man yelled. He turned around and walked back to his spot. My gentle, sweet husband just sat there stunned. And then more stunned. And then even more stunned. The light turned green and Trav drove away in complete shock. Trav tried to share and help him and all he could do was swear, yell and show rude gestures towards him. On the ride home, my sweet man started to get upset, and then by the time he arrived home and replayed the drama- he was kind of mad! I let him vent and then after reminded him that although, shocking, rude and weird, he was only 1 person. There were plenty of others who really would appriciate our small act of kindness and we shouldn't let the swearing man ruin it for us in the furture. He kind of laughed and said' I'm just surprised that the homeless have gotten so picky."

Blue & Gold Banquet!

Mr Tristin had his Blue & Gold Banquet last week and he did a great job helping with the flag ceromony & skit! He is growing up so fast and somtimes it hurts my heart too much to think about. I am so proud if him for working so hard in Scouts. Yesterday we met with a local engineer and had an interview with him. I was a proud Mama as he sat so grown up asking the stranger in front of him about his career. (He even left the message and then called back to set the appointment, both a little nerve racking- but he did it!) I love you Tristin with all my heart. You were my first little man and I couldn't love you more.

Roman & Cheeto...

Because I have a tiny, tiny heart- I have to let cheeto out to run around, and because it's still too cold outside, it's usually in my kitchen or bathroom. I always wait until I'm about to wash the floor, and then I let him run around- next I wash it like crazy. Roman has been pretty grumpy these days because he's teething, so to cheer him up, I took cheeto out to play. Roman loved it and Cheeto came around after awhile!It was pretty cute.

Cheeto goes to school...

Last week Daisy had permission for Cheeto to come to class! The kids loved him and Daisy was so happy to show him off to her friends.

Being a Mom...

A few weeks ago something became aware to me that I obviously already knew- I have 5 kids! With that came an overwhelming sence of obligation and profound need to become a better Mother. It hit me that, no I don't get in my car and drive to an office everyday to go to my job. My job is right here. My "office" is my home and my chirldren are my "work". I was reminded that there is more than just surviving the day and making it until bed time so I can collapse and slip into my coma- it should be more and better. I should be uplifing my chirldren and teaching them about life lessons. I should be instilling values and work ethic. I should be their cheerleader in life and show my love in the ways that they need it. I should be more intune to them and view them as people and not just little kids. It hit me that the Lord trusted me with 5 precious souls and my "job" is to give them the best I can and all I can. Somedays I swear I am going to run away and never return, and other days I promise myself they will sit in time out for 5 hours until Dad gets home, but I know that all the crazyness is apart of the package. Kids are kids and I need to allow them to act their age and not expect the world. I think sometimes because I grew up so fast, I expect my children to do the same. I have to stop and allow them to be them. I don't want to crush their spirits. 8 year old girls are supposed to be silly, and 10 year old boys are supposed to make exploding sounds all the time. 3 years olds are supposed to draw on white furniture and middle children are intitled to their weird freak out sessions. I had to take a look at myself and realize I need to improve- a lot. I know the Winter is always hard because it's freezing and no one wants to go out and play. Its dark and gloomy and just plain cold. I love spring, I adore the soft breeze and the time when you dust off the outside toys and send the kids out to just play. I look forward to walks to the park and around the neighborhood again. Thank you Heavenly Father for letting me enjoy these pretty awesome kids- thank you, thank you, thank you.

Neck issues and other body pain! (Sorry, this is for my record, skip over the whinning!)

Earlier in the month I pulled something in my neck and have been in a lot of pain ever since. In the beginning it felt like a horrible stiff neck with alot of pain that spred to my shoulders and jaw again. I tried to lay down often and I iced it like crazy. I took Advil around the clock because when it wore off, it hurt so much. I borrowed items to help and put poor Trav to work every second his hands would rub the pain. It's actually gotten better and I am so relieved, there is still a knot he's working on, but I can turn my neck now and its improving! Most of the time it takes a month of pure awfulness and a million dollars later from chiropractor visits to correct the problem, so I can handle the dull ache that still remains. My back has been giving me more problems too and so I think I need to get in and get things realligned. I have to accept that I have a body of a 90 year old woman and if I want relief, in most cases, I have to take care of the real problem.During the same time,my left brea*st beginning to ache, burn, throb and kill when I nursed. I was having chills and starting to feel awful and ache all over. I knew what was starting and called my OB for antibiotics for mastitis. She called them in and I started taking those bad boys because Mastitus is the devil. Pure and simply- the devil. If you can catch it soon enough, everyone's well being will be a billion times better, and if you don't you wish you would drift away and die. When I get it, it is the closest to death as I ever want to get! It's been a few weeks of yuckyness and I'm glad to be feeling better. Now if I could just get Mr Roman to stop waking up every 1 to 2 hours! Seriously, he's a newborn all over again!

Roman & Cheeto...

Mr Roman loves Cheeto. He will stand up by himself clinging to his cage and let him nibble on his fingers! They both squeel in delight that someone is paying attention to them!

A crazy dream!

Last night was one of those wild dreams where you wake up and think? What just happened? That was SO weird. It was totally a pregnant dream, minus me being pregnant! The dream went tlike this: Our beloved Cheeto, who was a boy, somehow turned into a girl guinea pig and got pregnant. Awhile later, on my carpet, she began delivering her babies, except they weren't guinea pigs- they were HUMAN babies of all sizes. She (he?) was very aggitated and so I put her back in her cage and watched these little humans laying there breathing on my carpet. knowing they would need to nurse, I put them in the cage with her. The problem was, another guinea pig magically appeared with a baby leapoard. They were going crazy in the cage stepping on her offspring, and poor Cheeto was trying to heal after her delivery and bond with her weird babies. I took the other animals out and that's all I can remember! So weird. Just had to write it down so I could remember it!

Finally!

Seriously, who takes a picture of their recently shampooded van??? I do folks! For months & months the van has been awful. A long snowy, muddy, wet winter didn't help the situation and every day I got inside, I felt so gross. I wont even begin to list the dreadful items I found. If you have kids and a mini van, I'm sure our items are exactly the same. It took almost 2 hours yesterday, but it's done and it feels awesome!

Loving my calling...

Being in the Relief Society Presidency is a lot of work, but I love it! I also love that I'm still over the activities because I love a good party! Without a committee, though, it's a little rough planning one of our biggest activities with 1 other person who isn't even on the committee anymore but is just being a sweet heart and still helping 1 more time! I just had to thank Emily K. and Teena S. for helping with 100 invites yesterday! It seriously would have taken me about 15 hours by myself! (not to mention stopping every 3 seconds to split up a fight, switch laundry or nurse a baby!) It took 5 hours with the 3 of us, so THANK YOU ladies for making my life so much easier!!!

Willow's party at the Walkers!

Little Miss Willow was invited to her own party at the Walker's house and she was so excited to go! She made her Valentine's all by herself too! Look at how awesome she does for a little cutie who just turned 3 a few months ago! For some reason though, when she got there, she turned ultra shy and didn't participate for quite some time.Infact, while all the other girls were decorating their picture frames, Miss Willow pants decided she wasn't havin' it and didn't do anything! Oh well, she warmed up at the end and started playing. Playing so much that she didn't even stop to use the bathroom and decided to pee in her pants instead! Awesome!

Grace's school Valentine party!

Last week I helped out in Grace's class during their Valentine party! It's a good thing I did too, because I was the only parent and it was a little crazy over at the glitter heart station I was helping at! I love glitter, don't get me wrong, but not when 25 little hands are squeezing, pulling and shaking the bottle with all their might! It got wild. So crazy I didn't even get more pictures of the party! All I can say is bless every teacher's heart. They are amazing. They are under appriciated. They are angels sent straight from Heaven. They are magical people and they posess something I lost a long time ago. I think they will have sparkly places in Heaven because what they do, prepare for, and put up with is insain! After 2 hours I was done! I couldn't handle the loud voices, the crowding into my personal space, the whinning, arguing, the nose picking, the crazy kid running circles around the table, the head scratching (because I invisioned lice going to town on their scalps!) and all the crazyness of the classroom. It was intense! Kindergarten opens your eyes to a new world and I was happy to exit the building at 3:10!

Mess Therapy...

After the past month we have had with buying huge new appliances for our home, it's no surprise that a new dishwasher is next on the list! ( and soon our dryer, it's making CRAZY sounds!)It started 6 months ago, and now it's almost impossible to get the thing started! Seriously, after 2 years of having it??? Why don't they make things like they used to???

Excited to try!!!

A few days ago I saw these little beauties at WalMart! I picked them up and put them down. Picked them up and put them down. They looked SO good! I didn't buy any that day and it was wrong of me because for the next 24 hous, thats all I could think about! I had to return and get them so I could return to normal brain function again! Can't wait to try them! I'll let you know!

Valentine's Day breakfast!

Here are the kids Valentine morning eating their amazing breakfast!

Way to go Blue Devil's!!!

Over the weekend, we got to spend lots of time with the cousins! Alex had a few championship games and they won!!! I don't know the division titles or anything, but it was a great weekend watching baskeball! Way to go Alex!

Daisy gets her ears pierced!

For Daisy's 8th birthday, she got her ears peirced! I tried to upload the video, but for some reason, I can't do it anymore! She was so sweet and so brave!

7 months old!

Last week the little man turned 7 months!

1st Place, Baby!

Tristin did AWESOME last night at the school wide jump rope compitition! Infact, so awesome that he took 1st place in his division!!! He got 369 jumps in 2 minutes! They compeated againt 6 other schools and he did it! I'm so proud of him! And yes, I was that Mom who couldn't stop getting down from the bleachers anytime he was within reach to hug him and tell him how proud I was and to just have fun and do his best! I know it was just jump roping, but I was so proud and in tears so many times last night while watching my young, sweet boy. He was flawless with perfect form and aparently a ton of jumps! Great job Buddy! We are so happy for you!