The Stouts

Parlee's new hair

2012-01-24T08:10:00.001-08:00

Parlee is "So Pretty" as she puts it....and of course we agree, Im mean come on thats a pretty happy face if I do say so myself!

On Saturday my mom, Marg and the boys spent the day at my house, in the evening Parlee came waltzing out to the front room, smoothing back her locks with her hand saying "Parlee's pretty" she had a smile about as wide as the grand canyon. It seems as though our little beautitian had some fun with the safety scissors in her room.

Marg and i cut another 4 inched off the back and cut the rest of her bangs into little pixie bangs and all in all I figure no harm done, it was bound to happen eventually. Shes on day three of her new hair and she still loves it, in fact yesterday I found her in the bathroom carefully slicking her locks back with lotion and on Sunday I found her styling her hair with the shampoo and body wash!....never a dull moment!

A card carrying boy

2011-11-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

5th birthdays are pretty special around here...and well, Kyler happens to be turning 5 in one hour! So today I packed up the kids and we headed to the library...Why?

Well, because at age 5 you can be an official card carrying member of the public library system. So, Kyler went to get his own card. Our friend Carrie was working, and I was so glad, because I had told Kyler that Carrie would be there to give him his card, so I was seriously hoping she would be working, phew she was!

Carrie let Kyler know that they now had cute new library cards...but Kyler wanted the standard library card that would fit into his wallet (yes, he did bring his wallet to the library)

He signed his name on his new card (my favorite part of the visit), safely tucked it into his wallet, and then promptly headed to the movie section to pick out a Thomas the Train movie.

He is quite proud of his new card, and well...so am I. Joely and Taran told stories of when they were finally five and could get their own cards. You know it may be simple, but I sure do love traditions! I hope that one day they will get their own kids excited for the day that they too turn five and can finally go to get their own library cards!

Found!

2011-10-23T20:06:00.001-07:00

Both bikes have now been found! The police found Joely's bike tonight! Yeah Ivins Police department!

Conference

2011-10-20T12:35:00.000-07:00

I still need to add Tarans picture, but its on Joels phone....

Anyhow, this year we had the honor of taking Joely and Taran to conference! I took Joely to the Saturday morning session and Joel took Taran to the Sunday afternoon session. It was so fun to be able to spend some time with our kids and let them hopefully get a little more out of conference.

Joely and I left from Draper two hours before the session, just to make sure we would be there on time...and with all the fun adventures we had (dont I always have those?) we barely made it, we were seated on the balcony on the LAST row! And I may have shown up with a few tears running down my face because I wasnt sure we would make it, and had shin splints for a few days from running so much in heals....aahh we love an adventure around here!

The one about bikes and toots

2011-10-19T19:10:00.001-07:00

What a crazy few days its been around here!

To start with, poor Kyler has been feeling awful lately. But it's been a rather odd, he would be fine in the mornings, a little tired, but nothing too major. He'd say his tummy hurt and lay around a lot. Then by the afternoon, he would be on the ground curled up crying and then just as quick he would fall asleep. This happened for several nights in a row, and he fell asleep in various places, like the bathroom floor, doctors offices, waiting room, cars, the couch, every floor of our house, bench at church...etc etc.

We decided if t lasted on Monday we would bring him to the doctors, and needless to say Monday he did much better...then Tuesday afternoon it came back. So I rushed him to the Instacare, where he had this x-ray taken...all the black is air. He was filled with air...a compacted gas issue. I was relieved it was anything to do with the appendix. Needless to say as the night wore on, his condition got worse. The doctor informed me the if Kyler woke up crying again or had a fever I needed to immediatly get him to the emergency room to have a tube put into his intestines to release the gas (sounds painful)

Well, last night he did get worse But I was also dealing with 4 other kids who had some form of sore throat, chapped lips (yes Joely woke up with this), parlee waking up crying for me to hold her, or I was stuck nursing. So, with Joel being gone I just kept putting off going in until each crisis was delt with. Finally at 2:30 am when Kyler went to sleep, I told myself the next time he wakes up, we are heading into town...and to my luck he slept through the rest of the night.

Today was spent in much confusion, talking to doctors and trying to get Kyler to feel better. He wouldnt eat or drink. Luckily about 6 pm we had a break through and he is improving!

We spent the day making up 'poopy-tootie' songs to try and make passing gas and having a bowel movement seem like a 'cool' thing to do :-)

What a long couple of days!

Then to top it off Joely and Tarans bikes were stolen last night! The even rode them yesterday afternoon. ***update*** while typing this the police department called and they have located Tarans bike down by Amber Estates!

Parlee

2011-09-30T07:35:00.001-07:00

I want to try and write a few things about each of my kids more often, just so that they are written down....So heres to our little spitfire Parlee.

I used to think that Kyler was quite possibly our hardest child....what was I thinking? Its 100% Parlee! However I will say that Kyler and Parlee were surely cut from the same cloth, there is never a dull moment with either of them around.

Parlee just gets into everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! The other day Joel said "maybe we need to buy her a new toy or something and then she will be entertained for at least a few days"....Funny thing is I HAD bought her something just that morning, and by the time Joel was home from work, she was already back to her same old routine!

Parlee draws on more things then ALL of my kids combined. I have bought so many magic erasers, Im actually surprised that we havent sanded our way through a wall yet with all the scrubbing we do removing her artwork!

Parlee LOVES to sing and anything musical, and she especially loves performing such songs in front of a captivated home audience. SO far she shows the most promise of inheriting some of Joels talent (however I think my non-msical genes are far more dominate in most of the kids) Parlee seems to really catch onto the keys that somegs are song in, and even though she doesnt say the words I have identified several songs just from how she sings them. Her favorites are "Do as Im doing, Follow Follow Me", "Popcorn Popping", "Elmo's World", and "Clean-Up".

Parlee seems to have a love/hate relationship with Keegan. She really does love him, and if he makes the tiniest peep, she is always the first to go running saying "Im coming Keegan". She obsessively holds his hands, even when she is taking a nap by him, she will sleep holding his hands, and she love to give (rather force) his pacifier into his mouth....On the flip side, those same hands that are being lovingly held, have also been bit many times. She also cant adjust to me holding him, and has the worlds loudest scream or more accurately a Pteradactyl squeal that pierces the eardrums. She screams sometimes when I hold or nurse him because she wants to be held instead and screams "No, hold me mom". Its both sad and quite frankly rather annoying too. I try to spend time during naps just holding and comforting her, if only us moms had multiple arms and laps!

We love Parlee and all the excitement she brings into our home!

2 months

2011-09-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Its funny how two months can fly by and yet also seem like forever too.

I'm amazed that Keeg's is already two months old and growing so well. He smiles and coo's at us. He brightens our lives each day, he makes all the misery of being pregnant so worth it (though I dont want to experience being pregnant again). It sad to already see him grow out of some of his clothes, and I wonder why time has to move so quickly...I want to just enjoy this new little one for longer. Yet at the same time it seems like Keegan has been a part of our family forever, its hard for me to even think of him not being there, not being the little brother. Time is such a funny thing, but mainly Im just glad he's ours!!!

It's really happening

2011-08-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

We are getting an addition on our house! Yeah!

So far, all wires have been ran underground instead of above ground like they were before, the tramp and swing set have been ripped out (with many tears from Kyler) some trees out back have been removed, with tears to begin with...and well after days of trying to remove a nasty big trees stump, the tears have turned to some cussing in our heads :-)

Concrete was supposed to be poured this week, but I think this week will be put on hold as Joels uncle Terry is going to pass away probably today, so Travis (who is helping us build the house and Terry's son) is going to need to spend much needed time with family this week! But hopefully next week we will be back in the swing of things :-)

Keegans Blessing

2011-08-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

So, I just started working on baby books, and realized that we never even bought Parlee and baby book! I know what terrible parents we are! Anyhow, Joel is huge about keeping a baby book, he is always asking if Ive written in them lately. I'll say that I havent but that Ive written stuff on my blog. Joel when then say something like a blog isnt the only place you should record stuff...well Im here to say Im so glad I have a blog and Im going to be a lot better about recording stuff here, and not worrying about if I have a picture to add or not, because today I was about to go back over the last 3 years and find dates, stories and facts to update baby books! How great is that! Thank you blog!!!

Anyhow, to keep with updating things and archiving, Keegan was blessed Sunday August 7th, the day after Tarans blessing...wow doing two big events and two seperate luncheons within 2 days with only a 2 week old baby was a lot!!! But it all turned out great, we had a lot of family come to the blessing, Joel gave a really nice blessing and then we all came back to our house for lunch, it was very casual and nice! Keegan actually slept during the entire luncheon!

Keegans blessing was the first blessing that Joel said he was seriously worried about the baby crying during the blessing. Keegan cries alot, he just like to nurse and sleep :-) But needless to say he did well, he didnt cry once during the blessing, but he didnt make it all the way through sacrament, he was crying by the end :-)

Tarans baptism

2011-08-22T12:18:00.000-07:00

On Saturday August 6th Taran was baptism a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints...Taran has been looking forward to this day for a LONG time! In fact he was supposed to be baptized on July 10th, but we worried that we could have a small baby right then and decided to move it back one month so that we could do it on the same weekend that the babies blessing would be (of course we figured we would have at least a month old baby by then). For the last few months Taran would say things like "so mom and dad, do you want to talk to me about my baptism?" you could tell he just was so excited that he was always hoping we would have something new to tell him to prepare him....The night before he wanted Joel to practice how to hold his arms, over and over again, of course Parlee and Kyler also wanted to pretend that they were being baptized too.

His baptism was great, it was the same day as Mason Abbots in our ward, so we had our family and his there. After we went to the park to eat, we invited the Abbotts to come with us and also the Maxwells were there. It was nice to have some friends there for Taran!

my little boy

2011-08-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

I just cant get enough of this sweet little boy!

But for your entertainment I have a funny story, today I drove through Conrads car wash, and part way through the car wash, my car just stopped on the track, it stopped right when this big blue sheet like thing was over my windshield, so I didnt dare try to put it into drive and try to drive down the track a bit, for fear that the small car in front of me was stopped on the track ahead. needless to say the large white medical van behind me hit into the back of me, and the truck behind him hit into him....a worker came over and I had to roll down my window, which ended up soaking me, because the sprayers where still on, and he had me drive throw the rest of the way with my window down....the funny thing is they didnt even offer to refund my money, offer my a free wash or anything, they never even asked if my car was dented. I guess one of my wheels went off the track. The guy in the van came up to me after and said that his wheel went off to and they had to guide him trough too. odd huh? ...I did go and ask them for at least another free wash, because my car was still looking cruddy because they turned the dryers off

Keegan

2011-08-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

We are loving our time with the newest member of our family! How lucky are we to be blessed with another sweet baby in our family, nothing is better then a new baby!

He is loved (WAY TOO MUCH), I feel like he is constantly being mauled. I have to ask the kids to leave him alone sometimes. He is always being kissed. He has even been dropped (by Parlee who picked him up and dropped him on the floor before we even noticed...and he never even cried, that's a fifth baby for you!)

He has a name

2011-07-22T21:21:00.001-07:00

He has a name, and its not just cute baby :-)
it's

Keegan Joel Stout

Never a dull moment

2011-07-22T14:57:00.000-07:00

Thats my motto at our home!

As if having a baby isn't enough excitment in our home, we like to step things up a bit!

Last night when my mom was visiting, and we were cleaning up from dinner that a neighbor brought....the kids were out side playing while we got dessert ready, and Parlee came inside screaming with blood pouring (not an understatement) down her face.

She must have fallen and hit the bench out front and ended up with a nice little gash in her forehead! Luckily my mom was here, so Joel and I quickly loaded up Parlee and headed to Instacare (Yes, Joel was mad that I didnt just stay home, but honestly I couldnt just sit at home)

We called Instacare and told them we were on our way, so that we wouldnt have to wait around. They got us right in and put a jell on her cut to numb her instead of a shot....at this point Parlee was happy go lucky and I was kind of a wreck. After about 20 minutes they came in to tell us that they were going to burrito wrap her up and have a nurse and Joel hold her down while the Dr. stitched her up. They told us that all the kids freak out and perhaps I should leave. I told them I would leave if I needed too, but Parlee was doing fine at the moment so I would stay in.

The wrapped Parlee up...and she did fine, we talked to her and told her she was such a big girl, she stayed perfectly still.

The Doctor put the first stitch in and Palree said "ow" in the cutest quietest voice ever. We all had to smile...then on the next stitch she said it again..it was so quite and so darned cute, the doctor and nurse where totally smiling and commenting about her. So then I figured I would get out my cell phone and take a picture, when i took the picture Parlee said 'Cheese" and thats wen everyone lost it, we were all laughing at her. It was so unexpected! Im so glad I was there instead of home worrying about her.

Parlee has done great ever since, she hasnt complained once! Her stitches come out next Wednesday, she has 5 of them.

It's a.....

2011-07-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

It's a BOY!

He was born last night at 9:30pm
9 lbs 8 oz
No name yet :-)

No baby still

2011-07-19T08:47:00.001-07:00

Cake, castor oil and patience :-)

2011-07-12T08:44:00.000-07:00

At this point I figure I can have chocolate cake for breakfast right? Honestly who is going to tell someone as pregnant as me to have something else...Im kind of thinking if I ate nothing but cake, no one would say anything either :-)

My midwife appointment today went something like this... Im measuring at 41 and a half weeks. I will be seeing the midwife again in a couple of days to see if anything has progressed. Starting Friday she will as she said 'be more aggressive' about getting this baby here YEAH! because we are starting to get concerned, and so was she...so hopefully for real this time the baby should be coming soon. She did say that everything looked like I wouldnt make it to the Friday appointment, which is not like her to say. However I have thought many times I wouldnt make it to this point :-)

My past week went something like this....I knew the baby would be coming last week...I mean really how could it not? Or so I thought. I dont care about dates or anything like that, its all the signs that make it so frustrating. Like loosing the plug weeks ago, and having 4 kids that are born within 1 1/2 weeks after that....seems pretty good odds to bank on the fact that the baby would be born within a week and a half right? Being dilated to a 5...I mean seriously! The baby dropping, so low that its hard to walk. Contractions galore. My measurement all pointing to the 4th of July, not to mention I NEVER measure big EVER! In fact Ive never measured more then 38 weeks before....I dont know I guess all of that made me pretty convinced this baby would be here. But its not.

I've tried to hurry the baby along, I took Kohosh, and herb that now if I smell I throw up, it did nothing. In fact the other day Joely opened up the bottle in the car the other day, and I had to pull the car over to toss my cookies for about 5 minutes!

I've gone on tons of walk (even though it is hard to walk) I've even googled this 'labor' inducing walk that has you walk with one foot on the curb and one on the road. I tried that the other night (at midnight to avoid hopefully anyone seeing) It was ridiculous and still no baby.

I've get on the ellipticle almost ever day, I jumped on the trampoline (no that wasnt tremors you felt from an earthquake, it was just me)...no baby.

On Saturday, I broke down and tried Castor oil....and a LOT of it! I started with a Tbs...nothing happened. So an hour later I tried some more, and then more. Nothing happened. So we went to bed.....I woke up at 1:30 and it was working! I had way hard contractions and of course the diarreaha. Wow, that stuff is crazy! But after 9 hours of misery, I still had no baby!

So, we have changed our prayers, to pray for patience! As I guess there really isnt anything else we can do. Though I have to admit, I am getting a little nervous, I try not to, but this is really wearing on my mind, and Joels too. We both have dark circles under our eyes from lack of sleep...since Im up most nights with contractions.

Also this week, I went to sacrament to hear the girls camp talks. I was delighted and surprised that when the Bishop saw me, he called me up to bear my testimony too. I think thats the best way to give a talk, there's no time to be nervous, or no stressing about it all week. Its kind of what you see is what you get, I gotta admit, thats a nice way to go!

Well, here's to patience, and of course hoping that this baby comes!

today

2011-07-06T08:16:00.001-07:00

No baby, but dialated to a five today!

This and That

2011-07-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

What a fun week we have had (at least when Im not crying because Im still pregnant).

We celebrated the 4th yesterday (complete with a insurance claim). We all dressed in something red, white or clue, except Joel who wore green (party pooper). We started the day out with Joels family. For lunch we headed to Pizza Factory with all the crew that was here in town. All the kids were obsessed with the darned quarter candy machines in the little waiting area. Have I mentioned I hate those darned machines. Anyhow Kyler is beyond obsessed with them, he packs a quarter in his pocket where ever we go "just in case" we find a quarter machine. The kids had exausted all the quarters by the time we were seated, except one quarter that I kept in my purse for Kyler to use at the end if he was good in the restraunt. Needless to say at the end, he got his quarter, and started to run out to our car, knowing their were more quarters out there. Well, he beat us to the car and threw open the excursion door and completely dented the car next to us!....Needless to say thats where the insurance claim comes in. Luckily its already all taken care of, and we waited around to talk to the people who owned to car, just so that we could appologize and get everything figured out.
Later we had a BBQ at my grandparents house, then Joel took the older kids to Vernon Werthen park to see the fireworks, I stayed with Parlee to watch them from my grandparents house. Parlee loved, loved, loved the fireworks. She kept yelling "more" after each firework and saying "I love it" over and over again. It really was funny! She viewed ALL the fireworks from the 'seat' my belly makes. Nope she didnt sit on my lap, she perched herself right on my belly for the full half hour (how did that not push the baby out?)

The 3rd was Parlee's 2nd birthday! She had a fun birthday, having grandma and grandpa stout and uncle Aaron over for dinner, cake and icecream. She loved being sang too, and was so cute about blowing out her candles. She blew them out so daintily (is that a real word). Kyler was too cute and wrapped up one of his train toys for her for her birthday, he was so proud of that!

Saturday: We took off to Zions to try and get my mind off things, he went to the temple of Sinawava and played around the river. We also took the kids to a rock and gem store, they got to pick out some rocks, and then we bought three geodes for the kids to crack open after Parlees birthday the next day (The geodes where a huge hit!), (hee hee no pun intended).

Other things we've done this week: went to Judd's for breadsticks and ate them at Greene Gate Village, that sure brings back memories of 6th grade! Checked out the new carousel they are putting in at city center. Watched more movies then we should admit too (its just too hot) Saw 17 miracles at the theaters. Oh and my favorite thing ever (I swear at this point it was cooler then getting a diamond necklace!) Joel bought me a giant bag of the little pebble ice from Iceberg! Yum! I am obsessed with eating ice when I am pregnant, so he went and got me my own huge bag of perfect little ice! I love it! Im not even joking, I cant think of a more perfect present then a bag of ice right now!!!

big belly

2011-06-30T09:50:00.000-07:00

Just a few of the pictures that Amber took of me the other night.

Some thoughts from that night:

1. I miss my callouses on my feet, the other day I had a pedicure with two of my friends, all my yucky looking callouses were removed. While taking these pictures I was walking around bare foot most of the time and I realized that I quite miss those callouses!

2.Im a wimp! By the end of taking pictures I was so tired! I actually had to sit down after almost each picture once Joel got there.

3. I have no creative eye for pictures! I was amazed at things Amber would say or do, and thought to myself I'd never have thought of that.

4. I think photo editing is so cool! The picture of my laying down with my eyes closed...well I really like that picture and I think its super cool that my sleeve is FAKE! serious when I went to put my arm above my head my sleeve was showing my garments and of course my ever so cute arm pits, and Amber told me not to worry about it. Sure enough when the pictures came back I miraculously had a sleeve that looked a little longer...I consider that up their with magic :-)

my not so informative appointment

2011-06-28T12:30:00.000-07:00

So, here is what I know.....I am measuring at 39 weeks. I am dialated to a 3, I am starting to efface, the cervical ring is softening and last Friday I lost my mucous plug...

However, though i feel like Im on my final week, she kept saying things like "well that could mean your with a few days" followed by something else and she'd respond "I think you may be 2 weeks out"...so I guess that means I could have a baby sooner or later....well I could have told you that :-) I feel like I walked away with nothing. I know that no one can predict when a baby is coming, but to hear, with in 48 hours followed by 2 weeks, seemed a little confusing.

She did say that my pubic bone was not in the right place (I knew that), she suggested this resistance stretch and then she suggested something else that she thinks works....she started explaining that what she would do and the red lights were flashing in my head....IT WAS THE CROTCH KICK!!!!! (Im sure many of you remember that one from Parlee) I told her NO WAY! It was funny she looked at me all surprised? I told her she did that to me two times last time and it hurt so bad, she then proceeded to tell me that no one has ever complained about it before (really?). Needless to say there is NO WAY i will ever have the kick to the pubic bone done to me EVER again!!! Anyhow, I guess the position of my pubic bone makes it difficult for the baby to move down and progress (cruddy).

Oh yeah, also when I went to my appointment, I walked in, and she has a wood floor. I stepped on the floor and totally slipped. I caught myself before completely falling on the ground. However, I did pull a groin muscle! Just what I needed :-)

Names

2011-06-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

I think after enough stress we have finally narrowed down...or let me re-state that, we have finally decided on some names that we both like.....which is very difficult. It seems like I will love a name and Joel laughs at it, or he suggests a name and I cant stand it. However, we have picked a boy name and 2 possible girl names we both like. We still dont have any middle names picked out, its hard also choosing family names that sound alright with first names. I really think the naming of a baby is quite difficult.

So do you want to hear the names we have thought of? Well guess what Im not telling :-) I've always had a hard time when people make comments and dont like names you've chose, so we usually figure its best to keep things under wraps until baby is born. I remember letting the cat out of the bag to a few people last time, when we had chosen Parlee for a girl name, the response was never favorable :-) Of course even after she was born there was an abundant amount of "Did you say Carly, or Charlie" or "Like Parley P. Pratt? but hes a boy?" Yup, just like Parley P. Pratt, thats who she was named after! I still love her name!!!

Hopefully, soon we will meet our new little baby! I go in later for an appointment and I'll write down what she says.

Later

my predictions

2011-06-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

If I had to make a prediction, I'd bet that this is the final week I'll be looking like this. I used to think the 4th of July sounded to early, but now I just don't think I'll be pregnant by then.

Also isn't this picture cute? I'm so un-photogentic, but somehow my friend Amber can make anyone look good in a picture.

another appointment

2011-06-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

yesterday I went into my midwife and Im measuring 38 weeks. Which still puts me on track for the 4th of July.

Girls Campity

2011-06-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

For those who wondered....I survived girls camp!...and to the second most asked question, No I did not have a baby at camp and scare a whole generation of girls from ever having their own babies :-)

Girls camp went better then I ever thought. It was a GREAT, AWESOME, PRACTICALLY PERFECT IN EVERY WAY, kind of camp, and I did better then I thought I would have (granted, I was like a bump on the log, but I survived)

Shelyce and I decided to head up to camp on Monday, with all the girls' stuff, the tents and of course our families. Im so glad we did this, we got a chance to take our kids out paddle boating, roast marshmellows and have fun. We also got camp all set up for the girls to come up on Tuesday. Another thing we noticed was that there was a million gnats up there (not exaggerating) so we were a able to call some leaders and send word to pack bug spray!!!

Tuesday everyone else came up as our families headed back home. Tuesday we had the oppertunity to go sailing (which I have always wanted to do, but felt that perhaps I was a little to prego to be trying sailing out, so I watched from the shore of New Castle resevoir). That night we had the Goochs come up and talk to us about 'Enduring to the End' Chantra Gooch grew up in Cambodia and lived on the killing fields for 4 years. Her story made everyone crying (expept some 1st years who were a little to young to really get it). We then stayed up late to do those 'color personality' tests. I was surprised to see how much I had changed from when I was a teenager. As a teen I was always VERY red, with yellow 2nd and pretty much no white or blue. Now I am still red first but surprisingly blue was almost tied with my red. I only had a few yellow and 2 (could have been no) white. I guess Im not as fun or spontanious (yellow), and Im still not a peacemaker (white)....didnt surprise me :-)

Wednesday: Joel and Will showed up to take the girls pn their hike, the leaders (except Natalie) all stayed behind. We latter met them at the end of their hike at the lake with paddle boats. I think everyone had such a blast on the paddle boats! For me a 'memorable' (I say that very loosly) moment was when Joel and Will decided to take the paddle out. Now as a rule, they fit 4 people, the 2 heaviest up front. SO i figured if they were going out, I jump in the back. We got in and the boys started paddling and we were going no where fast! I weighed too much! I laughed so much, I know Im pregnant, but come on! So I had to climb up and sit between the two of them so that we could move. I know the girls got a huge kick out of that....as many moms have already told me that this was one of the first stories they heard.
Later we did our skits, which turned out so funny...all of them!

Thursday: We (not me on this one) made a volleyball court for the Gublers (the property we were staying at) Now granted this was a project I thought up, I went up to the property, took pictures, we planned it out, and yet I NEVER imagined it would have turned out as fabulous as it did. The girls cleared the ground, removed bushes, trees and anything in the way. the court was marked with 2x4's along the perimeter which were dug into the ground then painted white. The whole thing just looked super!

Then the Bishopric came up, we played a fun game called Faith Factor, which was intense and fun, we had dinner and then went on our Faith Walk which had different leaders talking to the girls at different locations. It ended with a blind folded ropes course. We concluded back at the pavilion where the Bishopric could talk to us. During the time that the Bishop started to talk, the winds came up, tents began to collapse (one was totaled beyond repair). Needless to say their was quick decisions being made as it was 9:30 a night and it was concluded to take down camp and get off the mountain. I was told to call Joel and get him up there right now. I called him, he was on a walk with the kids, he quickly got home, changed the kids into their PJs, drove them to his parents house in town, fueled up and drove up to us. In the meantime we completely torn down camp in about an hour, the wind was crazy it rained a few times, and we did this mostly all by lantern and flashlight! We got most the leaders and girls off the mountain with only a few of us remaining to clean up, pack the trailer and wrap things up. This was the only time that I seriously over exerted myself and I paid for it the next day....but their really wasnt anything else that could be done. I knew I was going to hurt, but I also knew that camp had to come down NOW! It was cute Rhonda our Bishops wife came up to me and said you know this probably wont put you into labor, but it will put you into a lot of pain. Prophetic words! However I would have done it the same if I did it again, and by Saturday I felt fine again.

We did miss our testimony meeting with all the chaos, but we rescheduled that for this Wednesday.

All in all. It was a great camp. Im am seriously sad to think that I may not be able to be at camp next year!!! I wonder if I could sneek inside Joelys bags next year, because it will be her first year....dont 'greenies' bring their moms? I'll have to look into that :-)

Todays midwife update....

2011-06-07T12:46:00.000-07:00

Joel have been feeling for awhile now that the due date if off, In Joel decided to put an exact date on it, he was thinking we were two weeks off, making the due date July 4th. I couldnt agree more, and not because I wan tthe baby to come sooner (which I do). But because everything just felt wrong, when you get to the end, their are just signs that happen at certain points in your pregnancy, and everything was pointing to the date being wrong....truth be told weve been concerned about the date from the very beginning, but we never had an ultrasound to confirm anything....

So today I had an appointment and Joel said I had to let Liz know of our concern. So I went in and told her. She measured me and sure enough I measured at 36 weeks (I never measure ahead)...thats make the date July 4th!

Also my Iron levels were awesome...and 11.5. But I really have worked hard to keep those levels up!

And last but not least...I lost weight (thanks to throwing up) and weigh less then Joel again. Phew!

New hair x two

2011-06-06T21:20:00.001-07:00

Today was a fun day. Joely woke up bright and early to go down to our neighbors house for a fun haircut and color. She got a super cute a-line and had her died blonde. She came home and then later I went to the lady who does my hair and got my hair cut, died blonde, and had a bright orange feather added to my hair. I knew Joely would be jealous, so I purchased two and dropped Joely off later to have a feather added to her hair too. It was so fun to both get our hair done, and seeing how excited Joely has been with her hair all day has made my day! She has brushed and styled it so many different time today, its way cute! I feel like we are a bunch of rebels with our feathers :-) They sure are fun though.

a pictureless update

2011-06-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

My camera is still not loading pictures onto my computer! Really frustrating...okay so I havent taken it in to get looked at, I just keep hoping it will magically start working...not working so far, I guess I need to take a different approach :-)

So Im doing a what we have been up to without pictures and maybe cooler posts will come later thing :-)

May 5-9: The first week of May brought a very surprising a last minute trip to Disneyland. It started like this, Monday night the kids were in bed and I told Joel that Kyler loves to tell me stories of when we went to Disneyland, only he really has never been there. Last time we went he stayed at my friends house. Tuesday morning, I was watching Playhouse Disney with Kyler and Parlee, Kyler tells me another story of when he went to Disneyland, I laughed and sent Joel a text telling him. Next thing I know Joel calls me up and says "Well then lets go" just like that. We knew we had to go in May as I am getting way to pregnant, so I looked at my planner and realized the ONLY weekend I could go was that weekend. I called some hotels, found one suite available that could accomadate our large family and booked it. Quickly made a banner (which is cute, darn pictures not loading) to surprise the other kids with when they got home from school, and a day a half later we were in Disneyland! Hows that for fast. We left bright and early Thursday and came home Monday. It was wonderful, fun, and oh so tiring for this big momma! Yes we spent mothers day at the Magic Kingdom!

May 13-14: Fathers and Sons campout. Always a fun time in our house! I love Father and Sons! I however did not feel up to doing anything grand with Joely and Parlee, but then a friend in the ward called us and we went out to eat and watched a movie with them...turned out to be a blast!

May 20-21: 4th and 5th year girls camp hike.

All of May: Various school performances and fun stuff. I have to say I LOVE being back at Red Mountain Elementary!

May 25: Last day of school and Joelys elementary graduation

May 25th-June 2nd: Right afters school go out, I loaded the kids up and we headed to Bryce Canyon for my cousin Chelsea's graduation (only 18 kids in her graduating class!!!). We drove over Cedar Mountain, which was still covered in snow, even though it was dirty snow and the kids were wearing shorts and sandals, we had to stop and run around in it. Spent a few days relaxing in Bryce, and relax we did! Then I packed the kids up again and we headed to SLC, where Joel was working. My uncle gave me directions for a VERY back route to SLC, so we could enjoy some scenery. It was fun. I love that there are so many places in my own state that I have never seen. I was glad I didnt break down though, because by back route road, I mean their was no cell phone service and the only towns we drove through Im sure had populations of less the 100 people. We ended up in SLC and stayed with Joels sister Juli. She lives in an OLD OLD OLD house in Draper. It was fantastic! The yard was like a forest, you'd never have guessed we were in a city. In fact their were so many trees, that they cant get internet and my cell phone wasnt receiving half of the calls! We were supposed to leave Monday or Tuesday morning to come home, but it was just so nice to be away that we stayed longer. In fact Id probably still be there, but I started to feel guilty that I was there and girls camp is so soon, so I came home to help wrap up girls camp preparations.

As for pregnancy: Im fat, Im tired, and I cant wait to be done....I think that sums that up :-) But I do think that feeling a baby kick from inside of you has got to be the coolest feeling ever! Crappy thing is, Ive always had a goal to weigh less then Joel even when Im pregnant, first 4 kids that worked...bummer thing is it didnt work this time! I've passed him up and I still have a month to go! Im not looking forward to getting this baby weight off, I think its going to be a lot harder!

So as usual, we are here and there and everywhere and enjoying the journey too!

house stuff

2011-06-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

I cant believe I never documented all the house stuff we did a few months ago (Okay so we still are slowly working on some stuff)

But we did all new carpet and flooring throughout the whole house, which of course, due to water leaks made us have to replace a lot of the sub floor (so glad I dont do that stuff) Of course Parlee and Kyler were wanting to help with everything.

We also repainted the whole house...okay so this is where we are slacking, what is it about loosing momentum and not finishing a project. We joked that all the painting needed to be done before the baby came, which seemed far away, and now Im seriously wondering if we will make our deadline.

Joel also added baseboards throughout our house (we didnt have them before)

I must say, I am still so happy with all the changes! There is always more to be done, but Im happy with what has already been done!

4th and 5th year hike and ramblings

2011-05-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

So my pictures still are not loading onto my computer, and Im too lazy to go and get it figured out, so I guess I'll keep postponing Disneyland pictures, and ramble on about other mindless stuff...

This past week has been such an odd week, for some reason my legs are acting so weak, Monday through Wednesday I was stuck on a self imposed bed rest, not because I wanted to be, but rather because I really didnt have much of a choice, my legs just didnt want to hold this fat body :-)

Friday brought on our overnight girls camp hike for the 4th and 5th year girls. We had planned to take the girls to Red Cliffs and go hike up to the waterfalls. We realized that everyone has probably been there a million times, but its not to hard, and its beautiful. Imagine our surprise when none of the girls had been there before.

The hike went wonderfully, I think everyone enjoyed it. We stopped by Krave on the way back to the Bishops house.

That night, we were planning on staying at the Bishops house, playing night games, having breakfast in the morning and then going home.

Night games were a blast, we had more leaders and girls show up to play games. Then we walked down to the park for some outdoor night games. We bought some glow sticks for the girls and then we played kick the can and sardines.

I'm guessing that my leg problem was not totally over, because while playing kick the can, I totally fell down. I mean an all-the-way-to-the-ground-fall. I'll I kept thinking was Im SO glad that its dark out and no one saw! I thought the fall wasnt too bad, it didnt bother me that night,(the pain came on the next day). But now its 3 days later and today is the first day i can walk normal on my leg. I hit my calf hard on the stairs as I fell down them (yes, I didnt just fall, I fell down stairs ;-)) So, I'm glad that I'm not walking like a hurt penguin (just a regular penguin now)

The whole hike night was such a blast, but my body just cant seem to handle anything anymore. I wonder at times if its because each pregnancy makes it a little harder on me, or is it my age? Either way, Im very much looking forward to having this baby on the outside and perhaps having my body back to myself. :-) I guess I dont share to well!

this just in.....

2011-05-19T12:11:00.000-07:00

....no not a Disneyland post....I promise they will come (I just got my computer back today, so Im working on it)

....but this is new....

Parlee just went potty AND poopy on the toilet!

She had been going potty off and on for about 2 months now, but today she pooped. Yes as a mom I am proud!

Another Zions trip

2011-04-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

While posting my recent trip to Zions, I found some pictures of a trip we made on Thanksgiving weekend...So I thought I'd put those in here too!

We went to Zions with a bunch of Joels family, okay let me restate that with a bunch of our nieces and nephews and actually not so many other adults. :-)

We drove around first and saw 2 different groups of mountain goats!

Then we decided to go hiking up to Weeping Rock. The ground was icy, very icy!

We started the hike noticing a huge group of people at the base of the first incline, then we noticed why there was such a huge group, the trail was covered in icy...thick ice! And everyone was slipping. Everyone still wanted to hike, so they and the kids all took off on the trail and Parlee and I stayed behind and took some pictures.

After a while people not from our group were returning from the same hike and coming over to me and saying little things like "wow, that group of yours sure had a close call"....and that would be it. Of course I was curious as to what in the world everyone was talking about....

...however before I found out the rest of that story, our group started returning. They decided to make their entrance down the large hill a dramatic one. The boys were all 'surfing' down the ice hill! It was so fun to see. Some of the younger kids (like mine) squatted down and slid down the hill. It really looked fun and scary. (scary because while they were gone, I saw 2 grown men do a serious fall on the ice, one guy laid their for almost five minutes, it was quite scary)

....Okay so I got a chance to find out what other people were talking about on their way back from the hike.... I guess when they were hiking they saw a large icicle fall in the trail ahead of them. So they tried to keep the group together and kept a watchful eye....Once they reached the end of the trail, Joely was standing a bit away from everyone, when a huge icicle fail. (the funny thing is, I actually heard the icicle from where I was at the base of the trail). When the icicle came down (and mind you it was about the size of Joely) it actually hit her on the head, luckily not square on. but she had a nasty headache and some sore shoulders for about a week! SCARY!

We ended by heading to the temple of Sinewava, ate some sandwiches and most everyone hiked up the trail..Joel, Parlee, Kyler and I stayed back at the car, we were freezing by then!

Zions

2011-04-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Amy and I took the kids for a full day of playing and hiking in Zions....

Im sure we got some funny looks, 2 pregnant women and 6 kids!

I was overjoyed that the only pregnant lady throwing up was not me!!! Sorry Amy!

We only did a short hike and let the kids go at their own pace, which was very SLOW, because we had to pick up every rock to look at, switch hiking sticks (with the exception of Kyler who lugged around this metal pole as a hiking stick the whole time!!)

We saw some people who were paddling down the river, so we waved at them. We also threw dirt into the river (why not), drove through the tunnel with the windows down, honking and yelling out the windows...you know all the important stuff :-)

Later we went to the Springdale park and let the kids play. We stayed their for a few hours. Someone had left a bunch of sand toys in the volleyball court, so the kids spent hours building sand castles and having fun. Amy I spent those same hours lounging out in the nice comfy chairs that were also left behind!

On our way home we stopped in Hurricane and ate at Durangos, we were a sight for sore eyes. I must say its a little funny walking into a restraunt when everyone is so filthy dirty.

Whoo Hoo

2011-04-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

Im so glad my friend Emily got me to put the pregnancy widget back up on my blog. Because now I know that today I have less then 100 days to go!

Okay that may still sound like a lot, but being in the single digits is something to celebrate for me!

....as for prego updates. Most know that I tested postive for gestational diabetes a couple weeks ago, however I was so sick, that the blood results could have been affected. So On Tuesday I retake my blood work to see where I stand.

As for Iron levels this pregnancy, I have been crazy about my Iron. Seriously, obsessive, and its paying off. Even though I was low, it was my highest Iron blood level test I have EVER had while pregnant it was a 10.4 and anything under 11 is considered low. But holy moly that's so close to an 11 I was seriously jumping for joy!

Happy Spring!

2011-04-03T11:23:00.001-07:00

Funny things

2011-03-31T09:31:00.001-07:00

Kyler is the kind of kid that says things that just throw you off. He always keeps me on my toes for sure! The other day out of the blue this conversation happened

Kyler: Mom, did you know crackers are good for you?

Me: Are they?

Kyler: Yeah, do you remember when you were in Heaven and Jesus said "Hey, crackers are good for you"

Me: laughing too hard to respond.

Seriously I never know what is going to come out of that kids mouth.

Lately the word he has been mis-using is BUSY. I wonder exactly how many definintions he has for this word! He says things like this

me: Kyler did you have an accident in your pull-up last night?

Kyler: Yeah, Im just so busy at night it makes me have accidents

me: totally confused!

Usually busy is just a way of saying who cares, or I dont want to, or why should I. I it never seems to make sense or fit in the sentence. it's pretty funny though.

Other things Kyler says ALL THE TIME is

"Oh my gosh" but he says gosh with his funny little way, the other day I heard Parlee running around saying "gosh, gosh, gosh"

Kyler also says "what the heck" for everything....if he is eating cereal he will say "what the heck, I love this cereal"

This made me think of a couple cute things Taran used to say that still live on in our house....When he was younger he used to say "what the Lamanite" it used to make us laugh so hard that we all say "what the Lamanite" all the time.

Another time when Taran was really young, we were driving and he had a little fart, he quickly exclaimed that he had "A poopy burp" Ok that one still makes me laugh even as Im typing it. I love that a 'poopy burp"

A lost tooth

2011-03-29T15:53:00.001-07:00

Okay so as a kid I NEVER LOST TEETH! Seriously I lost my first tooth in 2nd grade and the next that I lost on my own was in middle school....all the others were removed from the dentist, Taran may be following in my foot steps. About a month ago he lost his first tooth...he is in second grade!

Here's his first lost tooth

Look who is eleven!

2011-03-29T15:36:00.000-07:00

Eleven years ago we were blessed with a sweet little girl. Joel and I often talk about how clueless we were as first time parents, yet how fun it was to be a new mom and dad!

In 11 years, Joely has grown A LOT! Her actual birthday was pretty low key, she got to choose where we went to dinner, she chose The Brick Oven since we had only been there twice, then on Saturday we had a party for her...

We played some fun games, and made washer necklaces, hairbows and snack 'carrots' filed with candy. It turned out to be a great day! (and tiring for us parents,entertaining is a lot of work!) I always think that we wont have enough activities to fill up the time, and then I find that I have way to many and no time to take pictures!

allergic?

2011-03-09T18:30:00.000-08:00

Can a person be allergic to being pregnant?

I think I am!

Seriously I know I've said this with every pregnancy, but I really dont think my body responds to pregnancy well! Im getting these awful mouth sores, besides how bad they hurt they are swelling up and distorting my face! Today one of my neighbors came over and right when I opened the door she looked at me and said "oh my gosh Kristin did you know your face is all swollen?" and she's not the only one. Last night two other people mentioned my grossly distorted face. Someone commented that it looked like I got braces, someone else said it looks like a really bad lip enlargement. I agree! The other crappy thing is that I cant hardly eat or drink and brushing my teeth is like murder (yes I still do that though) everything I do makes my mouth bleed.

So starting tomorrow I am going on an alkaline diet to see if that helps. I guess you could say I tried the choclolate cake diet today, since thats all I ate today ;-)

Excursion adventures

2011-03-02T18:57:00.001-08:00

Is it just me?
Sometimes I swear I feel like i have the best luck....HA!

It started innocently enough with me getting a new car battery for my excursion less then a week ago, because my car was having a hard time starting up.

Then Monday I went back to have both my batteries tested again, because the problem was still there, I found out I needed a new starter.

Okay so Tuesday I went into get my new starter for my car. That problem was solved. All is well in the car world again.

Enter Wednesday:

I picked the kids up from school and decided to quickly run into town before i had SEP's at the school. Joely and I noticed a random funny sound in my car, but it only happened sporatically. Then when we hit about the baseball fields, there was the loudest cracking popping sound.

You know the kind of sound where you know that it cant be anything good happening. So I pulled into the baseball fields. I checked under the car, and saw a lot of antifreeze and smoke....POOPY!

So I called Joels dad to come out and save me.

Needless to say the verdict was far worse then either Reynold or I imagined. I blew the water pump, but when it blew it completely dislodged, shooting into the fan. The fan broke, and one of the blades went flying into the radiator! So, the damage looks like a new water pump, new fan and a whole new radiator....of course once we get further into the car we may find that other blades from the fan did further damage (seriously hoping not).

What a crazy day in excursion land!

How you know your kids care....

2011-02-07T19:46:00.000-08:00

So how do you know your kids care? How can you tell if you are raising sensitive individuals....beats me! Because this is my life....

Today I have been sick, not pregnancy sick, but actually sick-sick. Today I had all the kids play outside for a while, and I was resting on the couch. I must have fallen asleep...when I did wake up and stood up from the couch, and bunch a rocks, not pebbles, but rocks came rolling out of my shirt. I guess when I fell asleep one or all of my children thought it would be funny to stick rocks down my shirt (and of course I had NO CLUE). I will admit I thought it was rather funny too, but I think we failed at the caring type :-)

Yesterday during sacrament, Kyler was being, well Kyler. So I took him out in the hall for a few minutes. He was so mad at me, because I threw away his little water cup from the sacrament. So he was trying to scratch me and professing the he hated me, when finally he decided on what you could tell he thought the worst insult ever would be, and he yelled out " I will even hate you at Christmas!"....I must be getting the crappy mom award if my son has declared that even on the most perfect of all days, even that very special Christmas day, he would still hate me....yes, I did find that funny too, but I wont let him know that quite yet.

Baptism fireside

2011-01-31T19:01:00.000-08:00

Last night was the stake baptism fireside. Taran was asked to give the opening prayer in front of a full chapel. He did a great job! The funny thing is that the next two talks the speakers mentioned Taran, he was So embarassed, he kept asking Joel "When are they going to stop talking about me." I think people mentioning him was much harder then giving the actual prayer for him!

Odd story

2011-01-31T08:12:00.001-08:00

Okay so this story was way to odd not to share....

Joel left for Vernal early this morning. I talked to him at about 8am and he mentioned how slow the traffic was going because of the icy roads. We hug up and about a minute later he sent my phone a quick snapshot of the icy, snowy roads.....

The at about 9am he called again. I asked how the roads were now. He said he had a crazy story; this is what he told me:

He said right after hanging up the phone with me, he rounded a bend in the freeway and noticed an SUV had just rolled off the road and the driver was trying to get out of his seatbelt (he was upside down). So Joel quickly pulled over and assisted at getting him out of his vehicle, then they went over to Joels truck to wait the 10-20 minutes until the highway patrol came along.

During this time they obviously started talked, he found out that he had rolled because a semi had changed into his lane a little to close to his car, sending snow all over his windshield, making it so he couldn't see anything but white, and the next thing he knew he was rolling off the freeway...As the conversation progressed Joel finally asked him his name and where he was going. The guy told him (and mentioned he was on his way to SLC, he was moving in with a friend) and Joel offered his name. The guy asked if he was related to the Stouts in St. George. The guy then mentioned that his friend was Dustin Stout. Joel then laughed and said, "yeah that's my cousin and you are moving into my sister's basement!" What a small world huh???

PS. We checked the weather for Vernal for this week, Wednesday has a high of 8 and a low of -15. Ouch that's cold. In fact the coldest it's been in three years, and that would be the time that Joel has to work!

Misplaced

2011-01-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

I am always putting things in places and forgetting where I've placed them...

So it should be no surprise that the memo I sent to Heavenly Father that said I am busy and over-whelmed lately must have been misplaced too, because somehow I just was put into the Relief Society presidency. So Im kind of guessing that memo must have gotten shuffled around and lost :-)

Actually I really am excited about the new calling, but I do have a lot of anxiety about it too! I have always been a horrible visiting teacher, I lack in the compassionate department, I'm used to working with kids. And then there's the other concerns, I'm pregnant, Joel's out of town all the time, I'm still girls camp director, I just got put on the PTO Evening of the Arts committee...but Somehow I guess it will all work out. Right?

Wish me luck as I venture into REALLY unfamiliar territory!

New school

2011-01-08T10:48:00.000-08:00

The kids have now started Red Mountain Elementary.

On the first day of school, I decided to walk them to class, when we parked our car, some of Tarans old friends recognized our vehicle and came running up to great him (yeah!) So Taran quickly went off with them and started playing football. I then walked Joely to class, who was feeling a little bit more timid.

After school, the reports were great, they both had tons of old friends in their classes and were taken right in! Taran reported to me :Mom, this is such a fun school"

By the end of day 2 (Friday) I somehow was lured into being a co-chair of the "Evening of the Arts" night....I guess it's like we (me included) never left! Ha!

Both kids are super happy to be back at the old school, Joely adjusted mush faster then I thought she would, and I think that all is well!

worker

2011-01-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

Today we have some city workers, working on the road out front.

Kyler came running into me after seeing them and said

"Mom, I need to hurry and get my work clothes on and ride my bike over to them to help work with them"

Classic 4 year old!

Changes

2011-01-05T07:30:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Joel and went into Red Mountain Elementary to talk to the principal Mrs. Barnum....The reason: We just havent got the comfortable feeling with Vista that we have been wanting. So we decided to go and talk to our 'old school' about some concerns we have, if switching kids mid-year is a bad idea...etc etc etc.

Needless to say by the end of the visit, we had transfer sheets in hand and we were filling out the necessary paper work to put them back into Red Mountain.

So after school, I told the kids about the change. Taran was WAY excited. Joely shed some tears (which is VERY UNUSUAL for her). I think Joely is going to have a hard time with the switch but is also fine with it....she is just going to miss her teacher Mrs. Fife...and so will we! She is such a wonderful teacher, and the main reason we were planning on not transferring her until next year. But, we felt the switch was a good idea, and Im excited to see how they do and Red Mountain tomorrow!

Lori on the today show

2010-12-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

This was Lori on the Today show with another REALLY annoying person!
Tonight she will be on Entertainment Tonight 6 pm
and Joy Beher 6:30pm
and Inside Edition 12:30am

not-in-the-know

2010-12-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

I think its safe to say that I am not always in the know! For example about a week ago I saw this commercial (shown above)....As I watched it, I seriously started laughing because Joel has two sisters Tawni and Lori who both sleep with blow dryers. I laughed that this show was going to show someone with the same strange addiction. I also thought it was funny that the person looked so much like Lori. I actualy was going to call Joel and tell him about it, but didnt.

Then a few days ago, Joel was on the phone with his dad. When he got off the phone I asked what they were talking about, he said that Lori was getting flown out to New York on Wednesday to be on the Today show....What? Why was she going to New York? Joel told me it was because of the show she did for TLC.....me still clueless. Joel thought for sure I knew that Lori had done a show called "My Strange Addiction". I had no clue, but started laughing as I told him I had already seen the commercial and Lori!

So, this Wednesday, Lori will be on the Today show, and taping several other shows (that I dont know about right now)

And Next Wednesday she can be seen on the debut episode of "My Strange Addiction" PS. if you click the link it will bring you directly to a short spot on Lori.

Love,

Wheres Tarans head

2010-12-01T09:27:00.001-08:00

So I have had that header at the top of my page for probably a year, and just today I noticed Tarans head..... (or lack of it)..... how funny, he is a headless boy. Not to perceptive here huh?

So here's a picture of Taran to make up for his headless one on top.

boys are great

2010-11-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

Only with a boy can this happen....

I walked into bathroom and saw Kyler wiping the top of the toilet and wall with toilet paper

Me: Kyler what are you doing
Kyler: cleaning off some pee, I missed the toilet.

umm, thats quite a miss!

I love to read

2010-11-22T07:32:00.000-08:00

One of my friends posted this, and though it isnt really all the type of books I read, i thought it would be interesting to write down the ones I read...I'll show the BBC ;-)

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

6 The Bible

7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott

12 Tess of the D'urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

14 The Complete Works of Shakespeare...yeah for Shakespeare class!

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk

18 Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

19 The Time-Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 Middlemarch - George Eliot

21 Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graeme

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis

34 Emma - Jane Austen

35 Persuasion - Jane Austen

36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown...okay this one is iffy...I didnt finish this because I had already seen the movie, but I read all of the book that is before this one, so I counted it.

43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 Anne of Green Gables - L.M. Montgommery

47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville

71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Inferno - Dante

77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker

84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 The Little Prince - Antoine St. Exupery

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 Watership Down - Richard Adams

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute

97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas

98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare

99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Not too bad, some though i admit I've never heard of and at least 1 I think Im going to look up to read, how about you?

a little crazy

2010-11-15T18:30:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I have ideas, and after I think "was this a crazy idea?"

Most of the time the answer is yes, but last weekend when I decided to load up 7 kids and just me as the only adult to head to Zions for the day, it really wasnt as crazy as I thought it may be ;-)

In fact, I think my kids like each other better when there are other people around! Im serious! When I take just my kids places, they usually fight, bicker, complain to me etc etc etc. But when I add more kids in the mix they act like they love each other (I know crazy, huh?)

So I loaded up my bus and took off to Zions and had a glorious time!

We started by heading directly to the Visitors Center to catch the shuttle, it was crazy busy two weeks prior when I went with Joel, so I was very happy to see we could park right up close. I unloaded the stroller, camera, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 kids, snacks, backpack, water bottles I packed for all 8 of us, and headed to the shuttle drop off.

I was excited to see that no one was waiting! Perfect we could easily get on and sit together as soon as the shuttle got there.

We waited.

took some of these pictures.

waited.

Read a little sign that said "In November the shuttle only runs on Saturday and Sunday" (it was a Friday)

....so we walked back to the car.

...loaded back up the stroller, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7 kids, the backpack, snacks, water bottles and everything else, and headed down the canyon.

I seriously had no idea that you could ever drive down the canyon anymore!

Our first stop was weeping rock, we hiked up. It was beautiful and the kids loved it.

Then we played by the stream, and I realized that wearing a white shirt with kids while playing in a muddy stream was a bad idea. In fact that shirt is now purple, because by the time we got home it was so stained up, I figured I may as well just dye it!

We then headed up to the narrows and hiked the river walk hike. Only one kids brought a jacket this time, and I brought a blanket for Parlee in the stroller...

We stopped to get (Millions of) pictures of kids jumping in the air by the river

Kyler whacked a lot of hikers with his stick he found.

I told the kids to take a 'cool' trail by the river that would meet up with the paved trail in a bit, while Parlee and I took the real paved trial....umm, the neat-o trial I told the kids to take, obviously ended and the kids decided to hike through a marsh to get back to me...bad idea!

We hiked on, until we found this awesome slide rock, where the kids slid down many times. We did sacrifice one girls jeans and her underwear to the cause. She slid down so many times, she ripped a whole in her jeans and underwear!!! We then tied a jacket around her waist and figured we better be done sliding. Then we had to slide down one last time so some lady who was hiking could take a picture of these silly kids.

It was now cold...and we were kinda wet and muddy, so we headed back to the car, which was surprisingly far away. We had hiked about 2 miles in!

As we were heading out of Zions we saw deer grazing (do they graze?) everywhere. So naturally we stopped in the middle of the road to take pictures each time we saw more deer...naturally.

All in all a great time!

Nativity update

2010-11-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

I have made several angel costumes (I think they turned out simple and cute). If you want to make any angels or Mary costumes, lets get together next Wednesday. You will need to buy your material. The angel looks good in a crushed panne material....it is stretchy though, which is more difficult then good old cotton. I also added a little trim (less the 1/2 yard) I think I'd keep Mary in a cotton material...but it's your choice. Im going to make my wisemen out of the crushed panne too. I already bought some. I bought 1.5 yards of 3 different jewel toned fabrics.

You can come by my house and see it before you buy material if you want. That way you could also see the patterns I sketched and try to get an idea of how much material you may want. You wont need more then 2 yards though if that helps.

If I can get Taran to take a picture with a costume on (highly doubtful though) I'll post it. I've made him try it on several time to see if I had made aprox a size 6 dress...but having his picture taken may be stretching it ;-)

Nativity

2010-11-06T07:56:00.001-07:00

Hey friends of mine, I know I had talked with some people about making nativity costumes for my kids this year...who may be interested in making costumes themselves?

I was thinking about making some patterns up and a group of us could get together and sew for our own families (kids or grandkids) costumes. The first pattern I would write up would be a Mary and Angel costume (they would be the same pattern)

Anyone interested? If not I'm just going to make mine (which would be way faster and cheaper for me, but Id be happy to write up a few different sizes if there is enough interest, I'm thinking I'll make 3 or 4 different sizes that can hopefully fit most primary aged kids)

Okay here is the idea I made today...Doesnt my model look happy to be wearing a dress? This would be the base for Mary and the Angels. You could add more to it if you wanted or leave it as it is.

See that?

2010-11-03T20:46:00.000-07:00

See that crack in the ground (yeah I added arrows to help you out)

That's Water Hole Canyon. It's in Zions, it's an awesome hike that starts at the end of the long tunnel, you go down a slot canyon and end up back at the bottom of the canyon.

You hike through water, and there are many rappels.

You see I used to LOVE to rappel, I have all my own gear down stairs. I used to love a fun challenge.

Now that changed when I went on this pretty hike. It's been YEARS ago. Seriously like 12 years ago. Joel and I and a bunch of his friends went on this hike.

Have you ever had a single moment when you can place when a phobia started? I can name when all 3 of my phobias started...This was when one of them became my phobia.

We were part way down the slot canyon, we had already tackled a few rappels...in other words, the only way out was to keep going down.

We hit a rappel where you climbed out over a log that was wedged in the canyon and swung down over it. Almost everyone flipped in there harness. In other words their feet where up and their heads where down...NOT COOL!

Dangling upsidedown on a rope never seemed fun to me, especially when no one was trying to go commando style.

I kinda freaked out, I remember that it probably would not have been that big of a deal, but I was one of the last to go, and the 10 or 12 before me and mostly flipped.
I was feeling dumb, because these weren't my friends, no these were Joel's friends that I was comfortable with, some I barely knew. I panicked!

That was when my fear of heights came in. Granted this particular rappel wasn't very big, but it was single handedly that moment that solidified a new fear in me.

The funny thing is that I did fine on all the other rappels, even the 200 foot drop off the water fall. But the rest of the time I felt an embarrassment over the fear I had at that rappel.

Never again has my gear been used. Sure I've done little rappels with the youth, but thats all.....

...so when Joel and I went to Zions a couple weeks ago, we hiked the Zions overlook that starts at the end of the tunnel (same place as water hole canyon) we went off the trial to peak over the cliff and find the slot canyon...and you know what?

I kinda want to go again.

We actually saw some people in their wet suits getting ready to start the hike, and that made me want to go even more....maybe time to try and face my fears? who knows.

many updates today

2010-11-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

I think because I dont have time today, I decided to start a new project, and also updated my blog several times through out the day, so make sure you scroll down theres 4 or 5 new entries.

some bedroom updates

2010-11-02T13:36:00.001-07:00

I FINALLY painted the boys' room. I have had this project planned for over a year, and finally got around to it. In fact Joel was here to help (never happens).

I really wanted to do blue to go with these vinyl fish I got Kyler LAST YEAR for his birthday (I told you Im lazy) The boys wanted a bright blue, and I figured why not.

We started to paint the room, and seriously after one wall I started crying, it was awfully BRIGHT.

So we mixed tons of white to it, and continued painting the other walls. When we got around to the first wall again, now that it was dry, well it kind of grew on me. So we kept one wall darker, and added the fish to that wall.

In Joelys room we made some more tissue paper balls and hung up the left over girls camp flowers, it turned out cute!

Evil Pac-Man

2010-11-02T13:26:00.001-07:00

As a member of the Stout family you know what Evil Pac-Man is. In fact you see pictures of evil pac-man EVERYWHERE. This is Tarans creation, he loves his 'evil pac-man' some breath fire, some ride skate boards, some have horns, some sharp teeth, others with wings. Most usually have those chicken feet ;-)

Taran even makes up pages to teach people how to draw there own evil pac-men. seriously it's an obsession. So for Kylers birthday it was only appropriate that Taran would ask Kyler his request for what type of evil pac-man he would want to have him draw. This is Kylers birthday evil pac-man.

The little horn thing on one of the evil pac-men's legs I think is a new addition. I havent seen that variation before.

Halloween round-up

2010-11-02T09:33:00.000-07:00

Heres a brief re-cap of our Halloween to-do's

We had a ward Halloween carnival...always fun and anticipated.

Another Halloween has come and gone.

We painted pumpkins. The kids spent SO long trying to get their pumpkins just right. Kylers was just layer upon layer of paint. Im surprised parts of it ever dried out.

Carving pumpkins with dad. This year we had the alien (probably the kids favorite)

The pumpkin on the pumpkin (my choice)

And a pumpkin face...Isnt he cute?

We put all the painted and carved pumkins on our bench and put our bench at the front of our grass by the road, so that they could be seen this year. We had them lit on Saturday and Sunday.

This year, we actually trick or treated in our neighborhood, which was a first in the 10 years we have lived here (I know sinister right?). We usually only walk out our block to the 'alamo' the coveted spot where you get MANY candy bars. and along the way we hit the few houses on our block that have their lights on, including the Blakes. We'll this year when we hit the Blakes Gina invited us to come back later for her homemade donuts and soup (we have had her donuts in years past and they are SO yummy). Well this year we figured why not go around our neighborhood then head back to the Blakes. And so we did.

I cant believe what we had been missing in years passed! Up in Summit Ridge it's like a gold mine of candy heaven for kids. Their were So many neighborhood kids wandering the streets, and so much candy. Kyler had me hold his bag between houses, because he claimed it was just too heavy to hold. It was the most fun we have ever had.

We then headed back to the Blakes for donuts and soup, the kids got toys the Gina had put in her hot tub (she turned on the hot tub so it swirled around and the kids could pick out fun prizes). We had to leave before the yearly 'witch burning' (how fun would that have that been?).

All in all a great Halloween!

Kylers 4th birthday

2010-11-02T09:03:00.000-07:00

Okay heres a secret...It's Kylers birthday this coming Saturday, but he doesnt realize that....so last night we celebrated his birthday because Joel is now gone to Colorado until Thanksgiving.

Kyler and I went to lunch at the ever so tasty McDonalds.
Then after school we decorated his birthday cake with the other kids. It was a beautiful cake!

Later we got pizza and went to the park to play because Kyler requested that he could 'play and eat and play and eat' and thats exactly what he did. He ate a few bites, then played came back and ate some more.

Joel and Joely left the park early to rush home and decorate for Kyler and wrap the presents that I neglected to have wrapped previously.

When we got home, his grandmas and grandpas were waiting for him. We opened the door and they all started singing Kyler got embarrassed and quickly ran to his bedroom to hide (he did the same thing when we sang to him at breakfast)

Then we ate cake and opened presents.

Make Joseph Eves' Kidney Transplant Happen!

2010-10-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

This is my little niece Aubrey, she is the daughter of Joel's sister Holli and her husband Joe. They are trying to raise money for a new kidney transplant, their site is here.

Love,

Drum Cafe

2010-10-13T08:27:00.000-07:00

Last night I took the kids along with the Johnsons to Drum Cafe.

Here's a video of the group.

Let me say it was SOOO fun. Kyler 3 times in his prayer last night asked if he could go back!

Pine nut hunting minus the pine nuts

2010-10-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

A huge pine nut hunt was planned....we visualized bags of pine nuts (like previous years)....we got 6 pine nuts. Thats after two days of driving, a tank of gas in my huge bus, and so many miles of dirt roads its crazy to think about.

BUT, we did have fun.

We drove out past Hamblin Valley (north of Modena) looking for the old family gold mine, and of course pine nuts, which are usually everywhere! We did find this plane parked on the side of a dirt road (odd). We also had fun being together, and laughing that Joel couldn't find the mine that his family owns.

Then on our way towards Panacha while driving on the highway, Joel quickly exclaims "Did you guys see that?" and starts slowing down. None of us saw anything, but we flipped the car around and headed back to check out a huge triantula cruising across the street. Joel tried to get the kids to want to keep it as a pet....ummm NO!

Here's the icky spider

Joely Boely

2010-10-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

Joely has been happily raking up our monthly expenses this last month!
She had her braces removed and now sports an awesome rainbow glow-in-the-dark retainer!

She also got new glasses last Thursday...then this Thursday Parlee broke them.....and yesterday she got new new glasses (such is life, right?)

She also got a new perm this week, and can finally wash it today! It looks super cute!

Our wallet may not be loving this last month, but you sure do look cute and grown up!

Just a random summer picture

2010-09-24T21:24:00.001-07:00

Since I was on a summer blog vacation, I have been recently looking through summer pictures. Here is a random picture I found. After Joel took the trek with the youth, we (meaning me) were curious what the trek trail looked like.

So one weekend we jumped in the excursion and headed up towards New Harmony to drive the trail. This was the first stop we made, it was where the Mormon battalion came and met up with the trekkers and took the men with them leaving the women to pull the next hill (a mile long) by themselves. I must say the womens pull was the steepest hardest hill of the whole trek (way to go girls).

Anyhow we stopped here so Joel could tell us stories, I was excited about this awesome old looking house that I could take pictures of the kids by, so I quickly assembled them for the first picture....and after I took it, my battery died! So this was the ONLY picture we took!

Anyhow it was neat to see where they stopped and ate meals, where they camped, and here stories that come back easier when you drive along the trail. It made for a great day!

Happy Anniversary ME and HIM

2010-09-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

After trying to find a picture of Joel and I together I realized that it's a RARE thing for us to both be in front of the camera together. So here's a picture of HIM without ME ;-) Happy Anniversary babe!

Kyler starts pre-school

2010-09-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

What a BIG BOY Kyler is!!! He has started pre-school with Mrs. Johnson! He loves going to Amy's house for pre-school. Here he is on his first day, and of course Parlee was happy to join in on the fun too!

Cannonville

2010-09-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Here's a few pictures from our annual outing to Cannonville (Bryce Canyon) to visit my Aunt, Uncle and cousins.

We have so dang much fun up there (except the gnats this year) that it was hard to come back home to hot old St. George!

We love the park across the street, hiking around, we hiked Mossy Cave and all around the town. In fact all my boys wanted to do was hike, hike, hike!

Joely tried on my cousins prom dresses and modeled them for us, and spent time doing her hair in Chelsea's bathroom where there are more hair things then can be imagined ;-)

First day of school

2010-09-23T21:06:00.001-07:00

Okay no mocking me friends and family of mine, this may be WAY over due ;-) But here are Joely and Taran on their first day of school....doesnt look much different then any day of school when you wear a uniform though.

Joely has started 5th grade and has Mrs Fife (that was Tarans teachers Aide last year...we LOVE her!)

Taran is in 2nd grade and has Mrs Westover.

June

2010-07-01T21:54:00.001-07:00

So, Im kind of thinking that during the Summer, Im better at just doing a quick recap of the month....

So, in June Joel went on the Trek

Taran turned 7! He had a birthday party at the park with his friends! He loved his birthday party and his major LOOT of presents. Holy Moly he got so dang much stuff that the kids got bored watching him open presents ;-) He got a new bike and scriptures (so he can read the Book of Mormon before he is baptized) from us.

We tie dyed shirts.

We had a family reunion in Cedar, and on our way home we decided to drive the trail that Joel went on for the trek. Wow it was grueling, Im pretty sure they woukd have burried me along the trail if I went!....Oh and of course as we started on the trail, we pulled off to take this picture, and then our camera battery died. So this is the ONLY picture of that adventure.

We had another family reunion for The Wood family. This was the BEST family reunion ever (in my opinion) because it all started out with a family game of the Amazing Race (I'll blog about that later)...of course there are no pictures of that.

The best part of Summer is sleeping in, staying up late, eating otter pops for lunch. No homework. Awesome Family Home Evenings. I love Summer (but not the heat)

So here it is.....

2010-05-30T21:25:00.000-07:00

Okay,

After a month or two, I am finally updating my blog....Here's the latest of whats going on at the Stout home....

I have a new calling as Girls Camp Director (Im very excited for it) These are all the surf boards I made Joel cut out for camp (what a great guys he is)

We checked out the Iron Man...way awesome, but I felt like I couldn't complain about walking back to the car after watching all the athletes ;-)

Had a voice lesson concert....Miss Holt was Taran and Joelys voice lesson teacher, she is getting married and moving to SLC, so they wont have her next year ;-( She has been wonderful for them! For the recital they both sang Chucu, a Portugese song.

Hiked around Snows Canyon

Had a choir concert for Joely and Taran

Taran had a musical theater/Dance performance....he was the Beanstalk and cow in the play "Jack and the Beanstalk" ..his only line was "Moo" ahh, we were so proud.

Joel had surgery on his nose....I loving call it his 'nose job' It looked ouchie to say the least..and Im sure he will be so happy to see these pictures posted.

Joely was in the play Alice and Wonderland, she performed 3 nights as a rock lobster and a cardsman

We planed a garden, because the kids learned the Primary song "The Prophet said to plant a garden" and they asked why we didnt have garden....so i quickly remedied that!

Mom and I made bonnets and aprons with the YW so they would be styling on the Trek.

Joels been home a lot, so we have been loving the family time (and not blogging)...so all in all

Life is Good!

Primary

2010-04-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

I DO NOT want to write this post!

Writing it is just one more thing to prove that its really here.

...and I'm still not ready for it!!!!

Yesterday I was released as Primary president.
Yes, I have had one month to prepare for my release. I am gratful the Bishop let me know about the release and have time to prepare for it. I cant imagine if I had found out during the week and then the following Sunday being released...because with all the time I had to prepare, well I just simply still WASNT prepared.

I can believe how hard it has been for me. I would never have guessed that leaving this calling would be SO HARD! I feel like a part of me has been ripped out, I cry about it a lot....a lot more then I ever thought I would have.....I know it's just a calling right? I disagree! It was who I was, it was what I thought about all the time, it was how I spent my time. I was who I was, and now I am not, and I am very sad about it.

I LOVE primary! I love sharing time, singing time, scouts , activity days, primary quarterly activities. I love baptisms, teachers, children, nursery, bulletin boards EVERYTHING! I love my many councilors and secretaries that served with me....Jennifer Anderson, Robyn Peterson, Andrea Bang, Lori Borrowman, Virginia Covington, Deborah Decker, and Bethany Scott (yeah I know i went through a lot of people in my presidency).

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Here are some things I was happy we accomplished while I was in.....Reading the Book of Mormon last year. I cant believe how many kids (most of the primary) finished the Book of Mormon last year!

Articles of Faith: we put of huge emphasis on Article of Faith, and as a result many of our kids know all of them! As a result almost all kids when they turned 12 also had their Faith in God award.

I was so glad to be a part of Sarah Speks baptism, what a special day that was!

I loved the Articles of Faith carnival we had as a primary quarterly activity and the Pirate party for reading the Book of Mormon!

I loved so many things about primary. I loved the blessings my family received from me serving. I am also glad that my kids were able to see the importance of serving in the church. I know my testimony was strengthened. Maybe one day I will be fortunate enough to serve in primary again, but even if that doesnt happen I am so glad I got to be in the primary for the last 3 years!

It was wonderful!!!

Book Report

2010-04-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

Taran had his first book report. The class had to pick a 'Magic Tree House' book, read it TWICE! Then research something from the book and make a poster for the book fair.
I chose Dolphins at Daybreak because it was the shortest Magic tree house book we owned and he had to read it twice. Taran wanted another one that had 150 pages. I quickly vetoed that book.

He chose to learn about the Coral Reef.

I love how his poster turned out. Though I have to say I am not a fan of big projects for kids, because what 1st grader can put together there own poster? So really it becomes my homework, and I have to work extra hard because I have to make him think he did it all. But in the end his (our) poster turned out great!

I love his art work. Taran is quite the little artist!

The tree ladder

2010-04-07T10:45:00.000-07:00

The kids have been wanting to climb trees more often, but are not that great at getting INTO the tree's...So Taran asked Joel if he would help him build a 'tree ladder' that he could bring to different trees in the yard to climb up easier.

Here is there cute ladder.

The funniest thing is that Taran makes sure he puts his ladder out back every night, because he doesnt want anyone to steal his ladder.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T12:55:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

First tooth

2010-04-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Parlee broke her first tooth today!

Thats me!

2010-03-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

Ha! I got on facebook and found that my best friend from way too long ago...her brother had posted this picture of Kammi and I. I haven't stopped laughing.

Whats on our heads?
A ball!

I'm the one on the left (if you couldn't tell)

It's so funny seeing old (and nerdy) pictures of myself ;-)

Happy Decade Day

2010-03-25T09:07:00.001-07:00

Happy Decade Day Joely!

Can you believe my little girl is a double digit now???
Im beside myself!
Happy Birthday Joely, we love you!
And sorry I forgot birthday candles and you had to blow out the 'birthday match' ;-)

Miss P

2010-03-23T20:34:00.000-07:00

Miss P has been cruising around...though not really crawling yet (I'm surprised) and last week she figured out how to sit up on her own. She is just growing up too fast!

St. Patricks day

2010-03-22T11:57:00.001-07:00

Here were are St. Patrick's day projects. With the kids in Vista and wearing uniforms, we needed to do something for St. Patty's day. So we made little shamrocks for the kids to put on there uniforms....YES they are shamrocks. In the morning when the kids went to get dresses, Joel said "remember to put on your trees" What tree's? Those are shamrocks!!!!

bunkbed clubhouse

2010-03-05T19:42:00.001-08:00

....a craft kids can help make? Boy oh boy did my kids have some grand ideas. I let them take the reins and they ran with it! They loved the felt clubhouses that people make to go over their card tables.... however, I didn't want a card table set up in the house all the time. So we made a compromise.

And the bunk bed club house was born

Enter through the 'hole' in the tree, which is made to be level with the bottom bunk.

Complete with a tree that has velcro for apples or flowers....(and for future banana's and letter's like the chicka chicka boom boom tree)

There is also a garden with pockets to hold carrots, beets and turnips.

Store your harvest from the garden or tree in the basket....or maybe you'll want to put flowers in the basket instead. (the basket is open to hold all sorts of goodies)

Holy Moly! I cant believe we got this done, we started in on TUESDAY!!! It's so AWESOME though! So next time anyone comes to my house with there kiddo's we may have something fun to do ;-) Seriously I do not recommend anyone make one of these in 4 days! However the plus side was that my house was only completely diasterous for 4 days ;-) And Kyler was so ready for it to be done, so 4 days was great for him! ;-) Let em just say if I get voted off next week, I may just cry! This project was way to involved to be voted off!!!!

so "HE" says....

2010-03-02T22:04:00.000-08:00

Kyler says the darndest things sometimes. Here are some of the things I have heard just this week

When I made dinner the other night he responded "Oh that's yucky for me, it has bugs in it"

.....it wasnt that bad.

When I told him his middle name was named after his grandpa Foremaster, he said "Oh I really love him"

When we took Parlee to get her shots today, Taran was feeling sad for Parlee, but Kyler just got defensive and responded "Let's kill him"

....hmmm, wondering what the nurse was thinking then.

This reminds me the last time I took Parlee in to get shots and I had Kyler with me, he was NOT happy that someone was being mean to his sister, he told the nurse "You not hurt my sister" then when we left the room to go to the front desk to pay he took one more last ditch effort and ran back into the room where the nurse still was cleaning up and threated once again "You NOT hurt my sister"

I am guessing to sum things up, I make gross food (with bugs none the less), Kyler loves his grandpa (so good middle name choice, though he was surprised that his first name wasnt 'grandpa'). And what ever you do DONT mess with this boys sister, he may just KILL you!

Shower Curtain

2010-02-26T16:20:00.000-08:00

Here is the entry you will see on Monday for the theme "for him" Yep I used Kyler, I know you aren't supposed to use your kids, but I am getting tired of working hard at being secretive, when Kyler isn't even on my other blog so I figured WHO CARES!!!! hey he's partially hidden by that awesome eye patch ;-) At the end I added some other pictures that weren't used. Today when we took the pictures I realized I needed some new curtain hanger things, I went to Target and got these great hooks with fish on them....Can I just say I LOVE TARGET! I decided not to push it with a picture of both my boys. But my kids are sad that other kids get to be in the pictures and never them, so here's Kyler's chance to shine....it a bubbly clean kind of shine ;-)

Arrr Matey!

Calling all Captians! Get ready to set sail on the 'bubbly' sea. bring your floaty toys and your wash cloth!

Let the adventure begin for the little boys in your life with this Appliqued shower curtain and towels.

Your little captains will take adventure to the high seas every time they take a bath.

So when it's time to 'swab the decks' they may just listen!

other pictures

The Gidget Dress

2010-02-18T08:06:00.001-08:00

I have blocked this blog from people who look at my profile.... so only those who know me can look at this blog. Because of that I thought I'd post the dresses I made for SYTYC (and because Joel wanted to see them and wont be home for another week...boo hoo)

This is what the post will look like for SYTYC, the theme for next week is RETRO. Maricela took the pictures of my friends kiddo's, and they turned out so dang cute. I seriously just love looking at these pictures....The pictures at the top of the post are a couple that I didnt use. I really is no fun only choosing 3 pictures!!!!

Also Maricela has some more pictures, some that she 'aged' on her site Ella's Photography.

Perfect for friends.....

Perfect for playing.....

Perfect for hugging.....

The Gidget dress is easy enough for a beginner. Made from linen, it lightly flows and is the perfect breathable fabric for spring and summer! As long as you are making one, you may as well make three so all the friends can match!

Made from a simple a-line dress. I will show you how I designed and made these simple dresses using clothes you own as a pattern OR by cutting up a cheap pattern to re-design your own.

These dresses have coordinating fabric buttons on the front (which I made with the linen from the dress). This dress also has a simple button down back that DOESN'T use button holes...So if you have been intimidated by button holes, there is no excuse to not make your own Gidget dress!

Kolob, Grafton and other Presidents Day locations...

2010-02-16T21:51:00.000-08:00

For Presidents day, Maricela and I took the kids to Kolob to take some pictures...however we didnt think there would be SNOW there! so we went to the bottom of Kolob and took some cute pictures in a field (pictures with red chair) then we headed out to Grafton (I LOVE Grafton) to get a few more pictures...The cute picture of Taran and Kyler was our felony picture ;-) There was this awesome old bus that was red and green and rusty..of course it was behind a little barbed wire fence with a no trespassing sign posted...we quickly snuck over a got a few quick photos by it (Raychelle avert your eyes to the felon part) It was a beautiful day and the pictures turned out great. If you haven't checked out my sister in laws pictures go check them out at Ella's Photography, it's bookmarked on the right of my page.

pink toes

2010-02-12T21:21:00.000-08:00

My sister Jess was at our house, and asked if I had ever painted Parlee's toenails...um no. Truthfully I hadn't ever thought of it, so she painted them, and they looked so dang cute! taking a picture of wiggly baby toes is a whole different story, it's darned near impossible! So here are her cute pink piggies, and a couple other Parlee pics!

Home again

2010-02-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

For those who knew...Parlee has been spending the last few days at the hospital with RSV. We are happy to be home again, and just have to report to the hospital in the morning and evenings! We are glad she is doing better...and glad to be home!

Little helpers

2010-01-29T19:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took pictures of my newest project for the SYTYC. I used my friend in the pictures, then after took a few pictures of Emma and Mason, what good helpers, and climbers too!

Goop

2010-01-29T15:52:00.000-08:00

When I was younger mom used to make this 'stuff' for us to play with...I decided to make some for the kids. They loved it! Later I showed it to Joel and he thought it was cool too. We tried to give it a name, but haven't found one....It's the weirdest stuff, it cracks and is hard, yet when you have it in your hand it 'melts' everywhere....

The secret ingredients
water
cornstarch
imagination
thats it!

talk.talk.talk.talk.

2010-01-27T22:02:00.001-08:00

I know I love to talk...but do i love to give talks? I dont know but I sure have been doing a lot of them lately. I just finished the New Beginnings for the YW in the Ivins 1st ward (not my ward). I had a talk all written out for it, yet just couldnt get the confirmation that it was right....then today a few hours before YW's I called Jennifer (YW president in that ward) and said that I just didnt feel like the talk I was assigned was the talk I was supposed to give....not that I really had an alternative either mind you. But I went there and I think i gave the talk I was supposed to give...did that make sense? Anyhow I think it turned out great and I hope the girls got something out of it too!....I wish I would have got a picture of the hand out's I gave the young women. I made them each a singed flower hairbow, it was placed on a stick with the scripture of the new theme. They turned out really cute I thought.

Here are some pictures of my room from the talks I gave on Saturday. I thought the room turned out great. My SIL Farah made these awesome signs for me, and I made a periodic table of family home evening elements.....my talk was on family home evenings....for those of you who hang around me enough, you know I always need a theme. So I made my own theme up for this talk, it was based on a lab. Complete wiht the periodic table, warning signs and another sign on the door that said Professor Stout FHE lab. I had beakers with food coloring and dry ice in them (I thought those were really cute)...I even wore a labcoat, blue dish gloves and safety glasses. I thought the room turned out great. i was however speaking the same time as Hyrum Smith, a doctor, a child phycologist and other great speakers so it was a little nerve racking...but at least it's done with!

It's Derby time

2010-01-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

Pine wood derby that is...

I love the pine wood derby and last night we had our ward pine wood derby. We had a wonderful turn out. I didnt get any real race pictures, but the one of Taran and Kyler. The boys loved watching the derby, I hope Taran was getting some tips on how to make his future race car...."The wasp" was the fastest car their, but all the cars looked great. We even had some ferari's.

The awards were about as great as the race.

The one with the rear view mirrors was for 'best looking'..cute

and there was the 'tire' for 'burning rubber'...can you imagine having to bring that huge tire home, because Im sure my boys would insist it went in their room!

There were some pretty funny awards, and every boy 'won' something. I sure with all the parts from the awards the boys could actually build a real car!

Oh yeah and here was my treat...my new councilors husband made fun of me for taking a picture...he'll learn. I take pictures of everything, including my twinkie derby cars!

Friends

2010-01-26T20:55:00.000-08:00

Some fun with the girls ;-)

Changes

2010-01-21T08:19:00.000-08:00

I hate change.....it's really hard for me to get used to things when they get changed around....and changes have been happening around here. A couple weeks ago I got a call from the bishop asking if I was sitting down. (Nope, I wasnt I was stuck on my wall phone) The Bishop informed me that my 2nd councilor Lori Borrowman would be going into a new Relief Society presidency. It's so sad loosing a member of the primary presidency...and trust me I have lost A LOT! I do find it funny that this is the third person I have lost to a presidency....Jennifer Anderson to the 1st ward Young Womens president. Robyn Peterson to our YW President an now Lori to the RS. The final Sunday in primary with Lori was a difficult one, we sat in the back and cried like a bunch of babies. Lori I am going to miss working with you!

I do have a new councilor though, and I am getting very excited to get to know her, it's Bethany Scott....which makes me laugh that now the 3 other people in my presidency are all in the ward choir and great singers, and then there is me ;-)

Well, here is to change and trying to love that which is hard for me.

Chipped tooth

2010-01-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

Aahh, today I chipped my tooth!!! On what? My other tooth!!! Has anyone every chipped a tooth, it makes the weirdest noise. I was driving and seriously had a mini nervous breakdown, I visualized it may look like this picture (nope, thats NOT me) but you actually cant even see it, but I can feel it...can you sandpaper a chipped tooth so it doesn't feel rough?

So you Think your Crafty

2010-01-10T20:33:00.001-08:00

I hope you all go and check out the projects on 'So you think your Crafty' I cant tell you which one is mine....but I hope you all go vote....Also feel free to check out my other blog here You can read the bio's (mine included) here.

Parlee

2010-01-06T20:01:00.000-08:00

Maricela (my sister in law) is doing all the pictures for the labor and delivery floor of the hospital. Here are some of Parlee she will be using! Seriously arent they adorable! Parlee is now six month old too, perfect timing for new pictures!

how to make your picture bigger on blogger

2010-01-01T16:48:00.000-08:00

I have been wondering how to make pictures bigger on blogger ( i just love how that sounds) I found another blog that answered my question, go check it out here.

Signature

2009-12-30T09:41:00.000-08:00

Check it out I figured out how to make my own signature on my blog. Let me know if you want me to tell you how to do it!

Go to this website
This site will help you develop a signature. As a suggestion when it ask's for a background color choose transparent, that way you can change you background and it will always match....At the end of making a signature get the code, copy it and paste it on your blog...
Where do you paste it? Go to customize, then "settings", then "formatting", at the bottom of that page there is a section with a box called "post template". Paste the code in the box and save your changes. Now each time you go to post something to your blog you will notice there is the code for your signature, it will automatically appear each time you post. Call me if you are confused.

Holy Fish Eggs

2009-12-26T22:11:00.000-08:00

While in SLC we decided to head out for some Sushi and Japanese food. We went to this cute little restraunt where there were little individual rooms and we sat on mats...way to cute. We ordered some California Rolls, I noticed that they had a pretty orange 'stuff' on the outside, but still ate them. (of course I had to take a picture of them) Joel commented that maybe they were fish eggs....no way, I thought. However, I decided to ask them what the orange was, sure enough they WERE fish eggs. I never thought that would be something I would have eaten, but now I can add that to my list of 'foods I have tried'. We got Kyler and Taran to also try the fish eggs. (Joely stayed in St. George for this trip so she missed out on the fish eggs ;-)) We also tried to eat the whole meal with chop sticks...way hard and over rated, but fun to do. The kids thought it was a blast, probably because they were better at the chop sticks then me...I sucked at them!