Gasoline

So, last week I thought about posting that I filled up my van with gas that was only $1.89 a gallon! Yah, I knew it was worth bragging about because only two months ago I was paying nearly $4 a gallon. Well, I am glad I didn't brag because as I left Costco today I saw the new price on gas, and my tank is still full : $1.73 a gallon!

My first digital scrapbook pages

The mess and space of regular scrapbooking have really been on my mind lately. Maybe because I have five children and only four bedrooms. Also, because I haven't completed one scrapbook page in over a year and a half. Not that I don't absolutely love to scrapbooks. I LOVE to scrapbook. But, i have too many helpers and it is way too messy for the five minutes here and five minutes there that I have. If I could finish a page or layout in one setting, I would be scrapbooking all the time. Well, after putting my blog into a book, I really liked how 200 pages fit into about 3/4 inch book. That would have taken four scrapbook albums. I also liked how the last year and a half that i haven't scrapbooked was now in a book. So, I started looking and talking and looking some more, and finally decided that maybe digital scrapbooking was the way to go. I cleaned out my scrapbook room and moved a bed in there and slimmed down a lot of my supplies and the rest got moved to my closet. I know I will use a lot of the supplies that I already own, maybe even by my older girls. Anyways, so a few nights ago I finished these pages. i was pretty happy with them. Eventually I will get them published to a book, and I will have a fun time creating the pages -- mess free!

Photo tag!

The rules: Read after the last picture to see if you've been tagged....The rules are you have to take 10 pictures of the following things and you have to do it right away. No straightening, cleaning or wiping your child's nose (I mean it!). Then you tag six others.

I DID IT!!!

The picture from my fourth folder, fourth picture.

What the kids are doing right now:

My bathroom:

My dream vacation: snorkeling in Cozumel

self portrait:

My closet:

My laundry room:

My fridge:

My sink:

My favorite room:

My favorite shoes:

I tag: Gerb, Shannon, Julia, Kristi, Allie, and Nicole

I've Been Tagged . . .

8 Random Facts About Me:

1. I think: my brain is in a fog. I don't know if it is lack of sleep or just not used enough in an intellectual sort of way. I forget too many things.

2. Sometimes I: wear control top to hold in all my rolls around the middle.

3. I said I would never: have a child that has snot running down their nose and then wipe it with their shirt. Well, having five children changes everything. There are a lot of things that I said I would never do that I do all the time.

4. I will never: like bell peppers. Tried as much as I have, they are still awful. The smell, the crunch between my teeth, the flavor, all bad. I still remember my brother-in-law Allen taking a green bell pepper and taking a bite out of it like you would an apple. He did it just to show me how he would eat ANYTHING, and that memory still sticks out vividly.

5. The first concert I went to was: . . . still haven't been to a real one.

6. I love: my children and my husband. They bring me so much joy.

7. I love: to paint. I'm not very good at it nor do I do it very often. But, when I do it is something that makes me very happy.

8. Right now I would give anything to: feel rested. Actually, maybe not. Then I would have to give up everything that I love and that brings a smile to my face. I am tired because I have a baby that gets up a couple times a night and I stay up late blogging or reading or scrapbooking.

Okay...I tag: Tonia, April, Kim, Becca, Trisha, Mandy, Angela, Michael, and Anyone else that wants to be tagged!

Here are the rules
1: Each player starts with 8 random habits/facts about themselves
2: People who are tagged need to write a post on their blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3: At the end of the post you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names.

Camie is a snaggle-tooth

Camie was so excited to come home from school and show me she had lost a tooth, thus making both top front teeth missing. It was close in being a "snaggle tooth" because the first tooth was starting to peek through. I think she helped the second tooth along quite a bit.

So, the tooth fairy forgot to come. how does that happen? Camie was so upset the next morning. I tried to give excuses for the tooth fairy like "maybe you went to sleep too late and when the tooth fairy came you were still awake so she had to leave" or "maybe it was too cold outside and she thought she would wait for a warmer night". Well, that one backfired on me. She insisted we make the tooth fairy a little sweater with a note. What size sweater do you make for the tooth fairy? So, the next night the tooth fairy forgot again. How that one happened is beyond me. So, Camie was in tears and I was feeling really bad for her. I swiped my hand under her pillow and asked her to check again to make sure she hadn't just "missed" where maybe the tooth fairy had put the money. Sure enough she check again and the money was there. Whew! That was close! Can you imagine the tooth fairy missing two nights in a row? If she's not careful, she'll be in the unemployment line!

A Day at a Ranch

Can you tell we like going to this ranch? The kiddos were so excited for about a week from when I told them we were going until we actually went. They really like riding the horses. I was very surprised Spencer liked riding the horse. he kept getting back in line and bragging about riding the horse. They didn't really like the cows on the "hay" ride. They got too close. Spencer was actually shaking and really clinging to me and hiding his face. Nathan was great. He didn't cry even once. He was a little worn out when we got home and made up for the lack of crying at the ranch by screaming the whole evening at home. I need to remember that he is only two months old and still a new baby and activities like this can be quite over-stimulating for babies. you'd think after five kids I would know this, but also with having five kids the babies learn pretty quickly that they have to be on the go a lot. As much as I'd like I can't stay home. I do have four others that like to get out and have some fun.

Trunk-or-Treat

A week before Halloween we had our ward Halloween party. Evan was home and able to go with us. It was so nice to have his help. It is amazing what two adults can accomplish and how less stressful and more enjoyable it can be.

Spencer got his first real taste of Halloween. He was still quite timid but used the words "trick-or-treat" well enough to fill up his pumpkin. The kiddos had a great time and really enjoyed having Evan home.

I think it wore them all out.

Pumpkin Carving

The last time we carved pumpkins was when Danielle was a baby, so that was about four years ago. I remember it well. I had not carved pumpkins with children before, and I was excited to have them carve their own and make it a great happy family event. Taneal was four and Camie was two. How wrong I was. It ended up I held the crying baby and Evan carved the pumkins impatiently while Taneal and Camie went off and played because they wouldn't touch the yucky stuff inside and they were too young to use a knife.

This year was a little different. Evan wasn't home, but tried to talk me out of carving with the kids. I felt they were older and maybe more capable. I bought four pumpkin carving kits ($1 each at Walmart) and hoped that the knives/saws in the kits would be safer. I was right with that part. Basically, Camie and I carved the pumpkins. Taneal thought it was too hard and Danielle and Spencer didn't even give it a try. Taneal did cut a lid and partially clean out her pumpkin, but lost interest quickly. Camie stuck to it and even gave her pumpkin whiskers. For those of you who know Camie, that she stuck with it is not at all surprising. She loves to outdo her sister and to do grown up sort of things and this was perfect for accomplishing all of the above.

Characters from a book

A notice was sent home from the school that friday (Halloween) was a dress up day as a character from a book. Children were going to be allowed to wear costumes to school as long as they were a character from a book that was a book before it was a movie. They emphasized that parents were to not go and buy anything, they were to be creative and use stuff from home. I let my kiddos be creative.

Camie wore the dress up that my mom made her for Pioneer Day party. She was Laura from Little House on the Prairie. Taneal dressed up as Cowgirl Kate from the book we have here at home. She did not want to wear her Halloween costume (kids at school seem to think a 3rd grader is too old to be a princess) although I thought she would make a great Ella from the book Ella Enchanted, which was a book before it was a movie. She insisted otherwise. I liked how my girls went through several books trying to figure out what they wanted to be.

Happy Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun. We went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood with the Humphery's family. While out, we joined the Monsons and their two boys, then the Williams and their three girls, the Nichols and their three children, and some of their friends. We ended up with a HUGE group that probably scared the people whose doors we were knocking on because of the massive numbers of children in our group. Remember, in my neck of the woods you have a lot of children if you have three! It was a lot of fun for all the children, but so hard for me to keep track of my five. Danielle liked the front of the group and Spencer hung in the back with Camie and Taneal somewhere in between. Nathan slept through the first part of it and woke after a while. I wish I had a picture of that scene, the one where Nathan wanted attention and Danielle and Spencer were too tired to walk: Nathan in the front carrier and Danielle and Spencer in the stroller. My muscles were sore the next day. But hey, Halloween is for the children (or at least it should be, you should have seen the teens and adults dressed up--scary).

So now to the costumes. Taneal and Danielle were princesses. Spencer has been trying to dress up in the girls dresses, so I thought if I made him a "prince" costume out of the same fabric, he would wear boy dress ups instead of girls. It seemed to work, he was happy with his prince costume. I made Camie a princess costume and then she changed her mind. I refused to make her a witch costume after I had already spent all that time on her other costume. So, she still wore the dress and put on a hat and some green face paint and a nose and made the princess costume into the witch she wanted. I love that part of Camie. Nathan was Frankenstein, the same costume Spencer wore when he was a baby, and still so cute.