I'm Stll Alive

Well baby is here (has been for almost 4 months), which has made my blog die a painful death. However, I plan on updating by the end of the year. I have a lot of catching up to do!

I wanted to post this picture by its self so it would be easier to see. I love this picture of Carol (John's mom) with all 10 of her grandkids. A lot of people can't believe it when she tells them she has so many, or that 7 of them are ours! Yeah, we shock people wherever we go with all these kids! We lined all the kids up in age order, and I think it turned out SO cute!! I am so glad I got this picture and I plan on taking one every time we go out there.

California Trip - John's Family

We were actually able to make it up to Santa Rosa a couple times while we were in California. The first time we just went up for the evening and hung out with his sisters at his mom's house. We didn't get to see Crissy's kids, because they were home in bed, but we did get some time with Anastazja. The second time we went up, we went to the most awesome park in Santa Rosa. It is called Howarth Park. If you are ever in that area, you HAVE to go there. It is our favorite place to go, and when John and I lived there we lived a couple blocks away and used to walk there with all the kids. That was back with we had *only* five kids. Haha! We had a great time at the park playing with John's family. Sarah, Crissy, and Carol (John's mom) and all of us had a picnic and spent the whole afternoon/evening there. It was fun for the kids to get to play with their cousins; Breanna, Brandon, and Anastazja. It was fun for all the grown ups to get to spend time together and visit. I wish we all lived closer to each other so we could do it more often!

California Trip - My family

Here are the pics I took of Hayden (and the other kids) with my family and a couple of my friends. People thought I was crazy for driving all the way to California with a week old baby, but honestly other than having to stop all the time to nurse him, it was no big deal. He was better behaved than the rest of the kids!

Even if John doesn't get the job, it was worth driving out there to get to see my family and for everyone to meet Hayden. It was the first time I had been back to California since moving to Utah 2 years ago. I don't miss living there, but I do miss living close to my family. I wish my parents lived here so I could see them every day!

More Preston Pictures

Here are a couple more Preston pics. He looks a lot more peaceful in these, don't you think? He is hooked up to a lot of machines right now, but he doesn't have anything wrong. He was a little traumatized at having to be delivered with forceps, so they wanted to moniter him for a while. He should be off everything tonight. I can't wait to get some of him with Jacob and Natalie. I told Jacob to get on that!

Preston Is Here!!

Jacob and Natalie's baby arrived at 9:30 this morning. He was 6 lbs. 12 oz. and 20 inches. I am so excited I can't stand it! I'm so glad he's here and everyone is ok. Enjoy his first pics. Not quite happy, but what can you expect? Can't wait for more!

Oh BOY!!

We went in for our "official" ultrasound today. I almost forgot about my appointment. John and I were sitting around our empty house, working on packing the last odds and ends, and I was suddenly like "Oh! I have an ultrasound in 30 minutes!". Good thing we weren't busy. We barely made it there in time.

As you can see we are having a boy. We already knew, because I had another "unofficial" ultrasound at John's work and found out a couple weeks ago. But it was nice to hear it again and see everything is ok. I have to confess, when I found out that I was going to be having a boy, I got a little teary eyed. After having 3 girls, I really thought that I was just destined for daughters. It is so exciting to think that I am actually going to be having a boy. It is also exciting that I will be having him a few months after Jacob and Natalie have their boy, so he will actually have a cousin his age - unlike the rest of our kids. So here's to looking forward to lots of shopping for cute little baby boy things, something that I have never gotten to do. Although my husband probably isn't too excited about it, I can't wait!

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Definitely a boy!

Bubble Girls

What do you do when your house is all packed up and there's nothing to play with? You take your little sister outside and share your giant bottle of bubbles.

On The Move

So we signed on a house. And no the house is not in California. And no it's not in Tennessee either. It's in American Fork. That's right, we're staying right here in good ol' Happy Valley. For the time being at least. We needed to get out of the house we are in now (it's up for sale since we won't be buying it) and the new house is month to month, so that if we need to move somewhere else we're not locked in for a year or whatever. So the job search continues, but in the meantime I'm happy with where we're headed.

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The new house is a rambler with full basement. It's 44o0 square feet (which is 1000 sq ft bigger than we have now) and 100% finished. It has 5 bedrooms and 3 full bathrooms. It's fully landscaped with a completely fenced yard (something we don't have now). It's also right across from a big park.

The best part?

It's CHEAPER than the house we're in now!!

That makes me so excited that we will get more house and a finished yard and save money at the same time.

So now we're just finishing packing up and we'll be out of here the end of the month.

The only thing I'm not looking forward to? Driving the kids out here for school every day, which is a 20 min. drive. And I have a pm kindergartner so that means more than one trip. Good thing school gets out the end of May.

Easter Baskets - Finally!

Here are some pics of the kids tonight after they finally got to go through their Easter baskets. Boy were they excited, since they had been waiting all day. Unfortunately it was late, so they got to look at everything, eat a few pieces of candy, and then it was off to bed. They will have plenty of time to play with all their little things tomorrow.

Easter With Grandma And Grandpa

For Easter Sunday, we decided to spend with with Sandy and Dave (my ex-in laws). We went to church with them, followed by an egg hunt for the kids and dinner. We got to get up nice and early since they have 9:00 church, but it was a great day and we all enjoyed ourselves. The kids had a lot of fun hanging out with them, coloring Easter pictures, and searching for eggs. I felt bad since I had hoped to take them to an egg hunt yesterday, but it totally rained. So it was nice that they got a chance to have one just for them and I really appreciate Sandy doing it for them.

The kids all dressed up after church at Grandma and Grandpa's.
Pics from the egg hunt.

Happy Easter

Well as much as my kids would like to dive right into their Easter baskets, all they get is a quick photo op while they're all dressed up before we head out the door to church with Grandma and Grandpa. The baskets will have to wait until we get home tonight. Don't feel too sorry for them, I'm sure they'll get plenty of sugar and Grandmas. After all, that's what Grandma's are for, right? Happy Easter to all of you from all of mine!

Brooklyn's 6th Birthday

Post and pictures coming as soon as I get my pics from Sandy. My camera battery died and of course I didn't have my spare with me. Yeah, the one that I got just for problems like that. Brilliant I know.

Me and Em - Dyeing of Laughter

Well, I never claimed to be normal and after posting these pictures I guess you will know why. Em and I sure enjoyed our night together, even if we were surrounded by 11 kids. I think we were more hyper and silly than they were. I guess that's what happens when you get 2 best friends together surrounded by kids and food. We tend to get a little giddy.

Mmmm. Dye is my favorite!
Yeah Em, get it in there.

Do you like my pinky ring?

This one is my fave 'cause it has the flared nostril. Haha!

I don't think I can get it in.

This Is What We Do With Naughty Kids

We have a huge roll of industrial plastic wrap (for when we move), and Em and I tried using it to cover the dining room table. After we gave up on that (totally didn't work) Hailey thought she would grab the pieces off the table and wrap Martha in them. Em and I decided that was a great idea. So she rounded up Hailey, Martha, Corlie and Brooklyn and I wrapped them with the actual roll of plastic. It was hard to do 'cause the roll was so heavy and awkward, but it was fun to have them all wrapped up and captive. We decided next time we should do all the kids, then we can just go stick them in the other room and then have the night to ourselves. Now that's a plan!

Hmm. Martha doesn't seem too impressed.

Me wrapping up the kids.

Help! Let us out!

Dying Eggs With Emily

Since Emily (my bestest friend on earth) won't be able to make Brooklyn's birthday party tomorrow, she came over to spend the afternoon/evening at my house today. I fed the kids chicken enchiladas (my favorite recipe of Em's) and then we got to work dying our approx. 4 dozen eggs. The kids had a blast, but I don't know if they had as much fun as Em and I did. ( I will do another post with those pics. Hehe!) They all managed to dye their hands, and Amelia managed to dye her shirt blue. I was disappointed by that, but I guess that's what I get for forgetting to make her take it off. It was one I really liked too. I guess it is a play shirt now.

All the kids at the kid table. Clockwise from front: Amelia, Camren, Karissa, Martha, Corlie, Brooklyn, Daniel and Hailey.

Martha and Corlie.

Daniel and Hailey.

Camren dyed his hands a lot more than the eggs.

Brooklyn checking out Daniel dying his egg.

Half of our finished eggs.

Natalie's Baby Shower

Well, here are a few of the pics that I took at Natalie's baby shower. I don't have room to post them all. It was nice to go and meet everyone, and I am glad I live close enough to be able to go since I was the only member from my family that went. I had fun talking to her grandma, she was just great. Natalie is such a cute pregnant person. She is so adorable to begin with, and being pregnant just makes her even more adorable. So not fair. I had a lot of fun, and I just love her to death. I am so glad Jacob married her. She makes a great addition to our family. I can't wait for my nephew to get here. Only 2 1/2 months to go. :)

Natalie and her mom, beginning to open presents.
Admiring one of the many totally cute outfits she got.

Holding up the sleeper I got. I couldn't resist - look at the feet!

Me and Natalie. She is just the cutest.

Company

My cousin Lindsey is coming to stay the night tonight with a friend. She lives in AZ (like the rest of my extended family - both sides) and she and her friend went to her friends parents vacation home in Montana for Spring Break. They are heading home today, and they are sleeping over at my house on the way. I am excited because we haven't gotten to see each other in about 2 years. She is 10 years younger than me ( All the cousins on my dad's side are way younger than my siblings and I. My dads brother and sister didn't have kids til my youngest brother was 3) and a lot of fun. I am waaay looking forward to staying up visiting.

March Update

Well I have some silence for a minute (as children are busy eating peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches. Eww, but they like them) so I thought I would get on here since I haven't been on in forever. I have had so much to say, but right now there is SO much going on that I haven't had time to say it. I will post what I have time for and hopefully be back with the rest later.

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The marriage workshops John and I have been going to for the last 6 weeks have been AWESOME! They guy that teaches them is great and my husband loves him and thinks he's hilarious. We have some one on one time scheduled with him for later in the month. So far we have learned a LOT and things are going great. If you're in Utah, check him out at: www.marriagematters.com.

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I am no longer babysitting the twins. Their mom was laid off , so they couldn't afford me anymore. I can't say I was sorry for the screaming to leave, but I will miss the money. However I haven't been able to take on any more kids, because of the next item:

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We're going to be moving. Where to? Who knows. No surprise there I guess. That seems to be what we do. I am a little sad though. I really like my house and friends, and supposedly when we got this house we were here for good. John has people that are interested in him both in California and in Tennessee. John's first choice would be to go back to CA because that's where our families are. I, on the other hand, have absolutely no desire to live there again. With the political climate, and the way the schools are going downhill, I don't see why anyone would move their family there if they didn't have to. It would be nice to be close to my family, but even when I was living a mile away from my parents (right before we moved to UT) they still barely had time to see us any more than when I was living in Patterson, which was over an hour away. The benefits to TN (other than it's beautiful there and I love it) are that John found out that the hospital he works for in SL has their headquarters in Nashville, which means he could transfer instead of applying as an outside applicant. It also means that he would have a lot of hospitals to choose from since out there HCA is like IHC here in UT, meaning it's everywhere. He applied for a transfer as an OR First Assist to a hospital out there, and if he gets it he will make as much as the job he is waiting to hear from in CA (which is almost twice what he's making now) but the cost of living is about the same as here in UT.

So we are sitting and waiting. I feel like we're in limbo. Everyone thinks he's wonderful, but no firm offers yet. Either way we are moving outta here.

Wedding Bells For Rebecca and Chris

Today, one of my bestest friends got married. Rebecca and I have been friends since the second we met, 13 years ago. This is her second marriage and Chris' first. They are absolutely adorable. I told Becca that it worked out that she married someone several years younger than her this time, because she was finally getting someone at the same level of maturity as her. Haha! The wedding was beautiful. I think I have close to 100 pics, but here are some of my favorites. I would have included the one John took of the 2 of us, but I look like crap, so you will have to do without.

Happy bride, all laced in and ready to go.

The fabulous back of the dress.

Exchanging vows.

Everyone all lined up

You may now kiss the bride!

Exchanging rings.

They started out so nicely.

But it didn't last. (Nice red eyebrow Becca)

Licking off the frosting. Mmmm.

Friends In Town

The last few days, I got to have my friend Hailee, her husband Alan and their adorable baby Hunter staying at my house. I actually met Hailee through my brother Justin. They were friends and then we met, and we talk ALL the time now. When she said taht they were coming down from Idaho for a friends birthday party, I was like Hello! Stay at my house! So down they came. It was so fun to have them here for a few days and be able to talk and talk and talk. I don't think any of us really got any sleep since we were up until all hours of the night, but thats what happens when you have a limited time to visit. You can't waste any time. While they were here we went out to lunch at Cafe Rio. Yum! They hadn't been there, so we had to go (and have the salad - duh!). It was sooo good! I was sad when they had to leave, but it was great to see them and finally get to see Hunter in person for the first time. And of course, Amelia was totally taken with their dog Scooter. After they left she kept asking me where he was. It was a lot of fun and I hope they come back soon!

Hailee and Alan.
The adorable Hunter

Brooklyn playing with Hunter.

Snuggling up on the floor.

Amelia and her new found friend (victim) Scooter.