Camie's Baptism

Camie was baptized January 9th. It was wonderful. A lot of family was able to come and many, many people showed up at her baptism making Camie feel like a super star. Even her teacher from school was able to attend. Her dad baptized her, her cousin, Rebecca sang a beautiful song, and her Aunt Becky and I both spoke. It was a wonderful day that was completed by a dinner of Camie's favorite meal: lasagna and bread sticks. Because we had so much family from out-of-town, we invited family over for dinner after the baptism. I wish I could explain just how happy Camie was that so many people were at her baptism. It meant so much to her. The Relief Society room was packed with all our family and so many friends that live close. We are so blessed to have so many people that love Camie so much.

Addilynn Ann

Congratulations to Daren and Shannon. They were able to adopt their first baby on January 11th. Check Addi out!

Too busy

This is how I feel.

The first week in January my ward split and I am now in a wonderful new ward. It is full of wonderful people, I couldn't ask for a better ward. But, I stayed in Primary (which I am so thankful for). There are no teachers, no nursery toys, no manuals, no snacks, no chorester, no pianist, etc. No one has been called and that leaves me feeling a little crazy. To top it off, Camie was baptized the same weekend. I was so fortunate to have family and friends come into town, but I'm sure they thought I was crazy, because that is how I feel. On top of that I am still the PTO treasurer. I still have 5 children. And I still have a husband. They are all wonderful blessings, all of them. But all combined together in a small amount of time are leaving me brain dead. And crazy!

New Year's Eve

Danielle and Nathan were still running pretty high fevers on New Year's Eve. We were supposed to go out to the ranch with Troy and Becky, but we decided against it, didn't want to get them sick. Again, we were home and couldn't go anywhere. Troy was so nice. He called and asked if we had any fire works. Of course we hadn't bought any. They said they were

leaving the ranch early and were going to come over to our house and share their fire works with us. They stayed outside the whole time to avoid catching anything. It was so nice of them to do that. My kiddos LOVED the firecrackers, especially, well all of them did. Nathan liked watching them and all the rest of them liked the sparklers and watching. It was great and so nice of Troy and Becky to come celebrate with us outside.

Christmas Break

This is an example of what our Christmas Break was like. The first week the kids were out of school, Spencer ran a fever of 103 for 6 days. It lasted through Christmas and I finally took him into the doctor on the last day of his fever and he tested positive for the flu. Poor little guy.

We were fever free in our house for three days when Nathan and Danielle started in with the high fevers all in the same hour. Theirs lasted 5 days and they were so sick. That was the second week of the Christmas break. So, we stayed at home with very sick kids for two weeks. I felt bad that Taneal, Camie, and Danielle didn't get to do anything really exciting, that we stayed at home the whole time. It was still a great Christmas and New Year. Fortunately it was only the three little ones that got sick and not the whole family.

Camie is getting baptized

Just a quick invite to all of you. Camie will be getting baptized next Saturday, January 9th at 5pm. I erased the address from the invitation because I was posting it on my blog, but it is at the Stake Center. If you need the address, please email me and I will send it to you.

Coyote Journal

It began last year. They had just started construction for the new school near where we live. They had cleared a bunch of tree from the wooded lot and I guess some coyotes lost their home. We were driving down the road and we saw a coyote cross the street, searching for a new home or some food. I guess Spencer was pretty intrigued, because he had all sorts of questions. And for the last 10 months he has made a comment about coyotes at least once every day. I finally started writing down some of the things he would say, but I only got a few because most of his comments were early in the morning while I was getting dressed or while we were out and about or when I couldn't get to a pen and then later forgot what he had said. But I did write a few down. Here are some of them:

"Mom, if you could do this (he closed his eyes and made snoring noises), coyotes will hear you. If you do this (he closed his eyes like he was sleeping and was silent), the coyotes won't hear you."

"Mom, coyotes don't have hands."

"Goldilocks can scare coyotes away."

"Sometimes coyotes say, "Boooo, Booooo, Booooo!""

"Mom, coyotes are strangers because we don't know them."

"Mom, coyotes can't see my lizards because it is dark."

"Coyotes sleep in trees and then they fall out with the snakes."

"I shoot coyote's houses. But it doesn't work. My gun is broken. It needs more batteries." (his gun doesn't take batteries.

We were standing in front of the Humphery's house and the kids noticed dog poop on the front lawn. Spencer came over to tell me about it. I asked him if it was Sister Humphery's poop. He gave me a funny look and said, "no". I then asked him whose poop it was. He got a very serous look on his face and said, "It was a coyote!"

And these comments went on and on at least once a day and even several times a day for about ten months. I love having a little boy. And especially one with an imagination.

Christmas Day

Over the last few months, I have been trying to figure out what we could do on Christmas day, once all the presents were opened. Usually I want to take a nap, but can't. Usually Evan wants to take a nap and does. And I find myself a little jealous, which I don't like. I wanted something that we could do together as a family to enhance the Christmas spirit already in our home. I asked around and got some great suggestions, but then I had to convince Evan to do something other then take his usual nap. I felt that was impossible to do. So, when I was planning Christmas Even with Evan's family, they invited us over for Christmas dinner. All I had to do was bring some pies. Here was something fun we could do that Evan would be willing to give up his nap to go and do. A great plan. We showed up at Troy and Becky's place around 2pm. Becky had a very nice ham dinner ready. We ate and then decided to go on a walk since the golf course behind their home was closed for the day. We got out the double stroller and headed off.

It was a very long walk, I think we were gone three hours. It was so nice to get out, stretch our legs, burn off some calories, and be out together. Evan took over the stroller, so that was even better. On our walk we decided to go over to the new church building that was recently built. We haven't started attending the building yet because it was only finished in the last few weeks. It was a real treat to walk the beautiful new building.

My poor little Spencer. He was so sick. I was so glad that Troy and Becky still wanted us to come over even though they knew he was sick. He was freezing and wanted to be held. I felt so bad for him. I ran out of Motrin so I had to go to CVS on Christmas day. I was glad they were opened. I thanked the girl working for working so I could get some medicine to help Spencer feel better. I was ready to take Spencer to the emergency room, he wouldn't take him medicine and had had a 103 fever for five days. I also got some benedryl to help him sleep, even though the label advised against it. I was at my wits end and didn't know what to do. Troy was so nice and came and took Spencer and calmly talked him into taking his medicine (I had been trying that, why wouldn't he do it for me?). Evan and Troy gave him a blessing and peace washed over me. We loaded up in the van and Spencer slept until the next morning. I did take him to an urgent care in the morning and he tested positive for the flu, but didn't run a fever after that.

Christmas Day was wonderful. It was so nice to have Becky cook us such a nice meal, to go out on a long walk, and to spend time with family who we absolutely love. They are a great family and we are so blessed to live close.

Camie got a new camera for Christmas. She chased Danielle all over the house trying to get pictures of her. I really liked this picture of Danielle running away from Camie.

This is Troy preparing the ham.

My nephew Austin. He is really become a young man.




Audrey playing with her new Christmas present, an IPOD Nano.

Spencer in the sand pit on the golf course.

Taneal running on our walk. I love the action shots Camie got.

Spencer. You can just see the sick look to his eyes.

Danielle. Man that girl has personality.

Taneal at the golf course in her new coat from Santa.

The adult table at dinner. Can you tell we are all adults? My kids love to be where I am. Danielle and Spencer both joined us. Nathan was sleeping or he would have also. Camie and Taneal liked being at the other table with their cousins.

Becky

The boys helping with the stroler.

Audrey, my neice.

Christmas Morning

We decided to make a few rules this Christmas. Nobody could wake anyone up before 6am. If they all happened to be awake that was okay, but NO WAKING ANYONE UP BEFORE 6! Camie came into my room at 5am and I told her she needed to go back to bed. I felt so bad having her do that, but experience has taught me that if my kids get up too early, they are super grumpy and they do NOT take naps. I wanted a nice Christmas, so I sent her back to bed. I am sure she did not sleep. At 6am Taneal and Camie both came into my room. I told them not to wake anyone up yet, but they could go downstairs and look around but they could not touch any of their presents. They could check out their stockings. So, they did this and Camie came upstairs announcing that Santa had brought her a guitar! She was so excited.
Since it was after 6am, I let them wake Danielle and Spencer up. Danielle woke up the instant Taneal whispered in her ear "Santa". It was cute. I told them to hang on while I got the camera ready. They all came tearing downstairs and excitedly opened their gifts.

It was a great Christmas. Taneal got some speakers for her MP3 player, clothes, a cool alarm clock that projects onto the ceiling, a messenger bag, Inkspell, and a few other little things.

Camie got a guitar, CD lessons, a camera, Flyte, shoes, and clothes. I know she got some other things, but they aren't coming to mind right now.

Danielle got a Leapster, My Little Pet Shop toys, clothes, and makeup.

Spencer got a camera, a remote control car, little turtle, lizard, and frog toys, a cool dinosaur shirt, and some books. The only think Spencer asked Santa for was a turtle and he was happy with a plastic one! Whew! Of course Spencer had been running a 103 fever since Monday night, so he wasn't quite feeling up to par. He was miserable. I finally took him into the Dr on Saturday and he tested positive for the flu and an ear infection. 6 days of a fever. Poor guy really didn't care much about anything on Christmas. He held onto the reptile toys he got and just wanted to watch Diego and Dora all day. I felt so bad for him.

Nathan got a car road map and cars, a big dump truck all to himself, and no clothes. He was happy with his dump truck and really didn't care about anything else.

It was so funny how the girls really just wanted clothes. Taneal didn't know what to ask for other then clothes. They also got some wii games to go with that wii they got last year that only has the game it came with. They got Mario Cart, The Biggest Looser, and Sing It.

They were all happy and I thought it was a little too much. I think I want to simplify next year, REALLY simplify and focus on the true meaning of Christmas and giving, not receiving. I know my kids didn't get nearly as much as a lot of other kids got, but after reading stories from President Monson and others and then watching my kids, I think I could really teach them some wonderful things to simplify. I'm going to have to think on that one a little more. I think I still want to get them nice gifts, just not as many.

I know there are a lot of pictures, but how can I possible choose just one? I have the cutest kids in the world.