Tagged again!

Sherelle tagged me. Since I have talked about myself a lot lately I will try to keep it brief.
Seven random things about myself and my family-

1. Mark and I met on a school trip to Washington DC when we were both in high school. We kept in touch and got married a little over two years later. :)

2. I am named after my Grandpa Kay and he and I are the only lefties in the family. (that's left-handed, not left politically)

3. My 3rd child Kate was 10 lbs when she was born and I had her au naturel. (not by my choice- I had a dopey nurse midwife)

4. When Mark was in the Army, we lived a mile from the beach in Monterey, CA for almost 2 years.

5. I have had 4 kids in 4 states. I really LOVE getting a new OB each time. :o

6. I talk to my sister Amy almost every single day. (Oprah and Gayle have nothing on us)

7. All 4 of my grandparents are still living.

Thankful, Not so thankful, pretty much thankful

Wednesday afternoon I went out to get the last minute stuff for Ryan's birthday and Thanksgiving. It was a crazy week and we were rushing to get everything done so we could leave early Thursday to go to Wyoming. About 8:00 that night I asked Brynn and Kate to go to the basement and get me some wrapping paper for Ry's gifts. They came running up screaming, "Mom, the basement is flooded!" That was NOT what I needed to hear. Apparently when I had turned on the washer that afternoon it had never stopped filling. If it had been a normal day, I would have checked on it earlier. In the chaos, however, it had poured water on the floor for about 4 hours! It was horrid. The water was ankle deep in most places. We spent most of the night Wednesday and most of the day Thursday moving everything out, drying it out, and putting it back. I was lucky more things weren't ruined. My scrapbook corner was spared. I would have been so sad if my pictures had been ruined. One good thing is a few months ago we had moved a bunch of our boxes out into the garage. I lost a bunch of books, and a few pictures, but not much else, thankfully. It was just a giant pain!

Thursday I was really having a pity party for myself. I hadn't had a good week and I wanted to be in Wyoming at my Grandma's. I was trying to be cheery for Ryan's sake. (he had a great birthday because we don't make the kids work on their birthday so he got out of a lot of work)He got a new coat, a VIDEONOW with a bunch of pvd's, clothes, and an XBOX game he wanted.

Finally, I went to Walmart to get stuff to make Thanksgiving dinner since all I was supposed to bring to my Grandma's was chips and dip. The walk around Walmart was good for me. I realized that I was lucky to have so many options for Thanksgiving. I felt sorry for the people working there that day and the people who don't have anywhere to go for Turkey day.

Mark made a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings and I made Ryan a yummy Oreo cake. He thought it was great. We ended up having a really nice casual day.

Friday afternoon we went to my parent's house in Wyoming. They had felt sorry for us that we had missed Thanksgiving so they planned a big family dinner for Sat. night. We made yummy enchiladas and had a fun time visiting. We were all there except for Zane and Mark. After the delicious dinner we went to the Parade of Lights in Afton. It was fun. All the floats were decorated with Christmas lights and the parade was to honor the local 1041st National Guard Unit that recently returned from Iraq. The soldiers marched in the parade and I was so happy to see them cheered for so enthusiastically.

We enjoyed church at my parents ward today and headed for home. Zachy was so happy to see Mark. He made us all give him a hug multiple times. Mark and I are going to watch more of the first season of "Heroes" tonight. Mark is really getting into that series.

Gratitude

I am feeling very thankful today.
Today I am thankful for:
-my kids, Brynn is ambitious and sweet, Ryan is caring and eager to please, Kate is spunky and fun, and Zachy is energetic and cute.
-my husband- I love this guy
-I love the church for what we learn but that it also stretches us
-my home and all the noise
-the dentist (toothaches are heck)
-my sisters and sister-in-law, my brothers are cool too but they both owe me a birthday present ;)
-Terry's Chocolate Orange (milk chocolate of course)
-my Dad who really wants us to get to Wyoming yesterday
-Advil liqui-gels
-24 hour stores
-Mark's job
-Thanksgiving at my Grandma Erickson's
-Brynn is thankful for her cats (I am NOT)
-digital scrapbooking
-Christmas cards- please send me one, I love them
-Apple Mango Tango Gain
-the fact that I am done shopping at Wal-Mart for the day.

I know there is more. I will add more later. I have had one heck of a toothache the last few days and was finally able to get into the dentist yesterday. Yahoo, I think.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am also thankful we get to celebrate Ryan's birthday on Thanksgiving this year. Ryan, we are so thankful for YOU!

Cousins

At the risk of being teased mercilessly by my dh I thought it would be fun to see if I could recite all of my cousin's name by memory. Ok, here goes. Layne, Lizette, Laramie, Lyle, Lauren, Lynelle, Lucinda, LeAndra, Clark, Allison, Kelly, Dianna, Kyle, Terry, Jonathan, Amanda, Kamie, Kody, Carrie, Rachelle, Becky, Bodie, Buckley, Bridger,Ty, Taya, Minde, Joni, Tawna, Magen, Callie, Tennyson, Sage, Rod, Deon, Dan, Sunni, Julie, Cam, David, Michelle, Dallin, Jared, Ryan, Brady, Robert, Landon, Ben, Devin, Ariel, Audrey, Jessica, Trevis, Colter, Myka, Patrick,Samara, Randa, Ralph, Norton, Carolyn, Halie, Cowboy, Terri, Jake, Luke, Emily, Clay, Chad, Wade, Ben, Sydney, Kadi, Andy, Kynzi.
Whew. My brain hurts. Did I forget anyone?

Not feelin' it

I want to post. I really do. Tonight it seems like it does when I write to my brother Z each week(he's in AZ on a church mission). I know I am busy, I know I have been doing something, but my life bores even me lately. Just what the heck HAVE I been up to?

1. I washed the marker off Zachy's legs two days in a row. He is on a roll! I swear that kid can sniff out a marker from miles away.

2. I lived through scouts for another week. I sometimes wonder why I am being punished. ;)

3. I delivered 100+ Avon brochures and didn't get yelled at once. Bonus!

4. I had the funnest lunch with my pal Jenilane today at a cool little bakery called Babe's. It was a great little spot. Mark would definitely call it "chick food". Thanks again, Jeni!

5. I have already pulled the Santa card this week and told my kids they are all on the naughty list. They didn't look worried enough to me.

That's about it. Wow, I am fascinating personified. Oh well, life is good!

My dad's uncle Keith's funeral was today. He was a good guy and a true character. He will be missed greatly by his family. I agree with my cousin Randa that we hate that family members are getting older and passing. I miss the good old days when everyone was younger and healthier. I know it's life but I have been SO fortunate that for having such a large family(I have 75 first cousins and I know them all-a few probably don't know me :o), I have lost very few people in my life. I still have both sets of grandparents living. I have been really blessed.

Happy big 3-0 AMY!
My great pal and sister Amelia turned 30 on Saturday. Her kids have been sick for two weeks straight and she came down with it today so I want to wish my sister the greatest 30th year ever and some get well soon wishes too. Amy is awesome. I wish everyone had sisters like mine. I am so blessed to have them in my life. Amy is stylish, funny, caring, a great mom, a true and giving friend, and I am thankful to call her my sis!
Love ya pal

Happy birthday baby boy!

 

 

 

 

I truly can't believe Zachy is 2! I know I say that a lot but the last two years have absolutely flown by! Or maybe it's the lack of sleep I have had over the last two years that has induced delirium. Who knows? :) All I know is that we are so grateful for this miracle baby. After I suffered such postpartum depression with my 3rd beautiful baby, we thought our family was complete. How wrong we were. We can't imagine our lives without Zachy's sweet little spirit as a part of our family. He had an interesting birthday. He was tired when he opened his presents. He opened the first two and was completely done! He was angry that we were trying to give him more until we gave him the Little People garage. He loved that! He also loved the talking toolbench from his Grandma Sandy. He loved hitting the nails with his hammer and making them make noise. After being so tired, he still only slept for 30 min. So when we had birthday cake he was tired and grumpy again. It was a funny day. We love you little Z.

So proud of my boys-

After a rotten week (for no apparent reason) I feel so grateful today. Ryan's principal at his school asked our little scout troop to do the color guard for the school's Veteran's Day program. Now I have been in Scouts for almost a year now but until recently I let the leaders who were at least 10 year scout veterans lead the way. I had seen several color guards but I didn't pay too much attention. Well, we were worried last night. The boys had made Indian vests and they didn't want to put them down to practice the flag ceremony. They had been more rowdy than usual and we even had a few physical altercations between boys. SO not what I needed. I was ready to throw in the towel. I came home almost in tears and fearful of making fools of ourselves in front of an entire elementary school and the many veterans (including my hubby Mark) that were invited to the program. I have utmost respect for our veterans and I wanted to do it right. Thankfully, randomly we had chosen Ryan to be the commander (the speaker) so he and I practiced 100 times last night. I would pretend that I was the one holding the flag and walking down the aisle so Ry could practice his timing.

It turned out so great. I am so proud of my little scouts. They all showed up in their uniforms (love those parents) and were ready to post the colors. We even had a few other boys from other troops join us. We lined them up along the aisle to salute the flag when it went by.

I am SO proud of Ryan. He was so nervous but he stood in front of his whole school and with conviction in his voice called out all the commands perfectly! The boys in the color guard did wonderfully (the flag was heavy) and I was just as proud of them today and I was discouraged with them yesterday. It was neat to have Ryan participate in a program where his Dad was a guest.

They had the veterans stand when the 5th and 6th graders sang each of the military branches theme song. Mark stood during the Army theme song and I was so proud of him.
The principal had the most heart wrenching slideshow of our troops and Mark and I (and a whole lot of other people) sniffled through it. I sure love this country!

A gentleman from the VFW (and a Navy submarine vet) told us the origin of taps and them played it beautifully. I am such a sucker for anything patriotic. I am so glad they are teaching the kids to appreciate our veterans service.

Ryan and the other boys did an equally great job retiring the colors. He really made his mama proud today. He was so brave!

God Bless the USA

Digital Recipe Book

Sherelle invited me to participate in a digital recipe book project. It was fun and it has given me a lot of ideas for making family recipe books, etc.

A few recent pics-

I may have gone a little wild with the photoshop actions but hey- it was fun!

Not our best group shot!

 

You can tell how worn out I was today by the fact that I didn't take any pictures until about 8:30 p.m. and when I did, I only got one group shot. I am SO glad that in this one group shot, Kate chose to wear her Billy Bob teeth! :) Ask me sometime (when it's not 3 am) about the extortion Ryan ran today at his school carnival.