uhhh, I thought socks and under ware were the worst Christmas gifts ever! Apparently I was wrong - these socks and - uh unmentionables entertained them all evening!

open to suggestions

OK, today was one of those days that lasted only 24 hours, but seemed to be about 600 hours long. I'm talking the house had been cleaned and destroyed twice, 5 kids had a bath/shower for various reasons, breakfast had been made and put away and then made again, wet pants had been changed at least 3 times, books had been read in anticipation for naps only to find out it was still too early for naps, fights had been broken up and peace restored (last count 74,849 times) a load of laundry in, out and folded, wii used, webkinz used, movie time used, too cold for outside time, board game played, oh and my sister flew from slc to portland and drove an hour home... - and then I looked at the clock and it was only 12:00! Craig still has 8 hours left in his shift and I am at a loss as to what to do with the kids! When does school resume? I am definitly open to suggestions!!!!!! What do you mothers out there do on these never ending days to ensure a happy, loving home? Tell me please! Oh yeah, and what are you cooking for dinner? (Always open to suggestions there!)

The Epiphany

Quinn pulled all the books off the bookshelf (no biggie) but one of the books lying on the floor was my yearbook. So I started perusing it and thats when it hit me.... EVERYONE thought they were cool in highschool, but NO ONE was! Point in case - picture above.

Who Wants to be a Doctor when they grow up?

The poor guy, he has worked 24 days straight. These aren't short shifts we're talking 12-16 hour days with an hour commute each way. In fact, Bekah made the comment the other day, "I haven't seen dad for a couple of days, is he out of town?" sad, but true. Well, he is trying to be the good, attentive dad (and he is!) but when he sits down with a kid... this is what happens. I have to laugh because on the other hand he is ADHD with projects (so he won't fall asleep). Our leaves have been mowed and mulched so many times that we had to borrow leaves from the neighbors just so he could mow some more. Then he has been building with the kids and encouraging projects (like pottery and shelf building), that quite frankly I'm not brave enough to attempt with all of them, and then their are the Christmas lights - let me just say 'the Griswold's." He's managing to keep up, but that vacation when residency is over just can't come soon enough!

One day Kaid was doing something a little naughty - not too bad because I can't remember what it was and I was laughing at the time and made the comment, "did the devil make you do it?" He looked at me and said, "what's the devil?" (Let me defend myself here - not only do we go to church every Sunday, have FHE, and read scriptures, but I try to teach my kids right from wrong and to be somewhat nice, decent human beings...) some how the devil lesson was skipped (or that was when he was standing on the back of the couch singing snowman for 337th time that night instead of listening to my carefully prepared FHE lesson) Anyway, I told him the devil tells you to do naughty things and Jesus tells you to do nice things... so fast forward a couple of days - every action or word he makes is prefaced with I'm listening to ______ (and he fills in with the appropriate person). And to think they were going to remove the word 'devil' from the Webster dictionary for lack of use!

A Little Tradition

OK, so we have a tradition that at Christmas we go to the store and each kid gets to pick out their own tree ornament for the year. We write their name and the year on the ornament and it is forever more their own. The next year they lovingly take their ornaments from their box and put them on the tree (oh no more fighting over who hangs what - it's lovely! - AND the most important thing...when they move out of the house - they take their ornament box with them.) Here's this years picks... Can you guess who the owners of these beauties are?

Anna truly believes diamonds are a girls best friend.



Save the Whales - Bekah



Baby Lexsie is the princess of the house


Quinns world is still seen in black and white.



Leave it to Kaid to find the goofiest, funniest thing out there!

I can totally see him as an old man with plaid shorts, black socks with his sandals, and a t-shirt that says 'I'm hot!'

Sick and Twisted Mind

I just discovered something about myself. Background: I made all the content, happy kids get up and go with me to Sams Club today. Now Bekah really is old enough to stay home alone, and old enough to keep a kid who is napping with her... but I made them all come with me. Something I do fairly often - then we had lunch at Sam's (a bonus part to my plan - not to have to cook/make my kitchen dirtier). Of course while we are walking around Sams I get several comments along the lines of, "are they all yours?" I parade down the toy isle past some really naughty acting kids and preen when the mother says, "she has 5 and her kids are behaving". And then while eating a nice gentleman came and complimented their behavior (Nice work kids!) That's when it hit me... I make them all come with me because I like the attention! Of course I'm proud of my kids, but as a mother we all know you don't get very many Kudos and so to remedy the situation I load all my kids up in the car, drag them to some store and march them around on parade. Of course there are the times the experiment doesn't work and people are whispering behind their hands as I drag crying, screaming, noisy, ill-behaved children out of the store embarrassed. No Kudos there. But those times it does work my sick and twisted mind really gets a kick out of it.