BB's, Baby beds, and Bargains

I am having an issue with my camera card. I sat down to post about a month ago and all the pictures that I had taken, would not upload to my computer. I was so frustrated. That put my blogging on hold for a while and then one thing led to another and I let a whole month slip away.


It is the end of school and we have been so busy with programs, field trips, 3 band concerts, banquests, picnics, graduations, etc...


I have not been good at reading or commenting on anybody's either. I would get on and feel guilty that mine was not current so I stopped reading everybody elses for a while also.


To all my friends/family:


Congratulations on finding out you are pregnant, finding out what it is, and having your sweet babies.

Congratulations to those who have run marathons, had adoptions finalized, had adoptions moved along a little further, had birthdays, anniversaries, graduated from college, completed another semester in college, and gotten new jobs.

My most heartfelt thanks to those that protect and serve our country and their families that sacrifice so much as they are away.

My deepest sympathies to those who have lost loved ones and had dissapointments in your lives.

You all inspire me, and motivate me.
Please forgive my lack of communication lately!



On to the post!

I have boys. A lot of them. They are rough and rowdy. One of their favorite things to do is shoot each other. (We live in the country. And we hunt. I am sorry if that offends anybody, that is just who we are.) : ) My boys have airsoft guns. They think that it is great fun to dress up in camo and try to see how many welts they can put on each other. In order to support their habit, I bought 2 big cans of b-bs. 20,000 to be exact. On this same day, we were upstairs busy putting up Matthew's new crib and I hear this great big whooshing sound. (You all may think at this point, that I never watch Jacob. He is the fastest thing since lightning. I need a collar that beeps if he gets more than 5 ft. away from me. He can get into more trouble in 2 minutes than most kids can in 3 days. But I digress.) It was the sound of 20,000 b-bs being poured onto the floor. Have you ever seen 20,000 b-bs on the floor? It is not pretty. The boys had a fit. They did not want to clean them up. Parker's solution was to just vacuum them up. ABSOLUTELY NOT! Those things cost money. It takes a LONG time to pick up that many b-bs. They have since been moved to higher ground!

Poor Matthew has been sleeping in a port-a-crib since he was born. He recently started waking up and demanding a 2 o'clock feeding in the middle of the night. We looked and looked for a while and finally found a really nice crib on craigslist. (It is my fav. place) I found a super nice crib, with the bedding for $150. I got him down to $125. I LOVE to bargain. I figure I saved around $300. I also got the boys a new basketball goal on craigslist for $50. We just threw it in the back of the truck and hauled it home.

So does anybody know how to fix a camera card that does not want to cooperate?

Would you hire this photographer?

This is what I found on the camera this morning. You gotta wonder what goes thru that boys head sometimes!

Teenagers think they know Everything

Today as we were in the car coming home from school, the boys were commenting on everybody at school and where they had been durning last Friday's tornado. Had we been at our house, we would have had a grand view. We have a view of the whole valley that the tornado passed right thru. The boys were saying, "Oh, we would have been on the porch taking pictures". I was telling them, "No way, you would have been down in the laundry room with everybody else". Parker said, "Well, I would have just used a long stethoscope and looked around the corner". We were all dying laughing at him and Joseph said, "It's not a stethoscope, it called a horoscope". At that we about fell over laughing.

I am pretty sure it is called a periscope boys.

My Best Friend

This is how I found Gabe and Abby one afternoon. They fell asleep in the car while we were running errands. When we got home, I put them on the couch to continue their nap. I had put them on opposite ends, but when I walked thru the living room later this is what I found. So sweet!

They love each other so much. Gabriel especially loves Abigail. He will do anything for her. He gives her anything she wants, and does her jobs for her when she says she is "too tired". He is an Awesome big brother!

Storms are Scary

Today the kids had off from school for Good Friday. We needed to run several errand in town. Post Office, shoe store, (poor Joseph just informed me that his church shoes were a size 8. He now wears a size 11 1/2!), buckets at Lowes, you get the picture. A very busy, but productive day. We were just leaving Fleet Feet when my personal storm tracker (my sweet mother-in-law) called telling me that a tornado was heading for our house in about 20 minutes. Well, it takes 20 minutes to get home from town so I thought, hmmm, where can I go with 7 children that will be safe in town? Walmart was the closest place so we pulled in as the storm approached. We each grabbed a little one and raced into the store as the storm got closer. We dallied around and just thought that we would kill about 30 minutes and then head back out on our merry little way.

I was in the process of getting some photos printed off when they told everybody to go to the middle of the store, because the storm was upon us. I questioned the lady if that was the safest place. Wouldn't the back be better? She assured us it was, so I gathered up everybody and we headed to the middle of the store. I might add that our Walmart is under renovation and is a TOTAL DISASTER!!. The aisles are too close for two buggies to pass by each other, but that made for a good spot for our family to bunker down in. We had our priesthood holder say a prayer for us : ) and we just waited. We could hear the rain and wind, but it didn't seem to be all that bad. After a little while the "Easter bunny" came by and gave all the kids candy, which I thought was a great idea to settle them down. Now I have to brag that my kids did exceptionally well for sitting between the boxer briefs and hanes socks for over an hour. I am truly thankful that they were not at school or at home by themselves. It makes me feel so much better when they are all with me.

Just a side note about the people that we were around. When we were first told to gather in the middle, everybody was crashing shopping carts and one lady in a wheelchair/shopping cart was freaking out! She was crashing into everybody exclaiming, "They tell us to go here, they tell us to go there! I can't move! AAGGHH!!" All I was thinking was, get me away from her. She will be freaking out and yelling the whole time! I have to say, there was nobody around us either. (I wonder why?!)

After about an hour they told us that we could move and we headed back to the very back of the store, where we were at when the storm came upon us, and what do I see? ALL the Walmart employees coming out of the back! I KNEW THE BACK WOULD BE SAFER!!!

Anyway, we got soaked racing to the car and the tornado missed our house. It however did not miss the area right down the road from the very place we thought would be safe. From what we can tell the tornado passed RIGHT OVER Walmart. I am so very thankful that we were safe.

I am so thankful for the 51 phone calls that I got in Walmart. (yes I went back and counted them) I am so thankful for the wonderful example of my sons and that they hold the priesthood. I am thankful that our house was spared. There are many that were not. Friends from the community with a son that has cerebral palsy lost their house. I am thankful that Heavenly Father kept us safe.

I really do not like tornados.

Sometimes my life is a little busy

You would think that I would have noticed something this obvious, but apparently not. Thank goodness I did not have to go into town, just to pick up the kids from school. Still, I think that along with checking to make sure that I have all the kids in the car when I leave, I think I need to add checking to make sure my shoes match, to the list.