Finally done

A million apples peeled, cored and cut.

Around 150 jars filled and processed.

And 2 full days to get it done. Wow, I'm glad that is over. 

It is nice to know that should anything happen to me or Doug; should Doug loose his job or if the stock markets crash and money is scarse, we will have plenty of peaches, applesauce and apple pie filling to live off of. Peaches and applesauce are great for kids and they like them  so it is a plus. 

I know that I have tried. I have put in effort to attain a food storage for my family. I have done my best but I am so thankful that the canning crap is over. I am sick of it for the year. 

It is good for me to get the experience in it and I am thankful to Katie, Kyle and Mariah for all their help.

Next year I will have to try making jelly and some other different things, but this canning year is over.

climbing

Miah is definitely in the climbing stage. She gets onto and into everything. She climbs on the chairs and onto the couter and on the table and into the drawers in the bathroom. She trys to climb up the metal fence to the doggy area and onto the little table top by the swing outside. She climbs on the kids' beds and all over the couches. She manuvers herself this way and that way which eventually gets her stuck somewhere. I had to put the bar stools in the office so that she would stop climbing on the counter and possibly hurt herself. 

Oh, the climbing stage is not the only thing she is into right now. There are many, but what I will be most happy to get through is the toilet stage. The time in these precious kids lives where the second a bathroom door gets left open is the second they are sticking their hand in or stuffing a new toy down into the porceline white bowl of fascination. They are so amazed by it and why it is so exciting, I may never know.

The funny thing she is into also is the pulling the diaper off stage. She loves to pull off her diaper and run the jiggly bottom all around the house. She will pull it off and think she is so funny the she just has to show me what a wonderful thing she has done. Thankfully it is not and every day occurance, but whenever she gets a break between putting on a new diaper and getting her clothes on, that is what she is doing.  

bunny ears

Miah was playing with these bunny ears the other day and it was so cute. I got these bunny ears from the women's run that we went to.

 What an experience that was. It rained the whole time and we froze. The running didn't help to make our freezing bodies to warm up much, but it was beautiful outside and that helped. I enjoyed doing the women's run with my family and having a prettty good morning that followed with a long nap to rest my muscles since the cold made me all stiff and achy. I wish I had gotten pictures of that.  

grandma's house

I love that my kids enjoy everything about grandma and grandpa's house. I love that they have to have grandpa hold them and play with them. I love that there is always something to play with that makes them happy. I love that we can go over there and I don't have to worry about them hurting things, much. I love that even though when leaving grandma and grandpa's house they are usually sopping wet or a horrible mess, they have a good time and grandma and grandpa don't get upset about the little things. I feel that they just enjoy us coming over and that we don't have to worry about being judged in any way. I love my parents and my kids love their grandparents.

Hyrum's birthday

So these are pictures from Hyrum's big  4th party. Corin called it a pirate party and a few people dressed up. Corin obviously dressed up in a creative little number here(No Corins bum did not recently get huge, that is part of the costume. I didn't know pirate's had big bums.). It was fun. A big group did show up so that was great. 

We ate Corin's creative and spicy soup that she normally makes and the cake was decorated pretty well with piratey stuff. It was cute. Hyrum was dressed in his spongebob costume with pirate make-up on. They did a pin the X on the tresure game and Hyrum had lots of presents to open up. They did the present opening before the cake because it was taking a while to finish up the cake and people had to go. So instead of singing happy birthday before the presents, we sang "For he's a Jolly Good Fellow". That is supposed to be a pirate song. Hyrum opened up a cool transformer toy and I was trying to get him to say thank you to the kid that got it for him and all Hyrum would say after I told him to say thank is," your welcome".

I was the one in charge of taking the pictures and it is funny that Corin didn't bother to tell me about the party until 10:30 at night the evening before. She's a funny girl. Oh and Corin be careful calling my house at that time It doesn't make doug very happy when he is around.

The cake tasted great. I don't know if it was made from scratch or not but she added these apple slices to it and it worked out. Wonderful cake. 

By the time the cake was eaten Corin's house was sufficiently messed up by all the kids and everyone packed in there, so we tryed to straighten things up and headed out.

Hope you had a great party Hyrum

Family gatherings

So last wednesday Jolene had a get together at her house. Aunt Barbra and Uncle Van were in town and she wanted everyone to have the chance to say hi before they left.

 When Jolene called to invite me I was so excited. We haven't had a family get together like that in I can't even remember. I haven't seen Aunt Barbra in forever, maybe since my wedding. They had been on a mission and Uncle Van just recovered from hip surgery. 

We got to the party and I was surprised by how thin Barb and Van were. They looked good though. We sat and ate a good meal, the crazy amount of kids ran and played every where. Delmar sat around talking about everyone's weight and bringing up old childhood stories. I love listening to all of them talk and relate funny past experiences. 

I had been wanted to talk to Barbra about something for a while. When I was 16 or 17 Bardra invited me to her house in California for a week to hang out and have fun. I was a little nervous to go alone and Corin was pretty upset that she wasn't asked so I set it up for Corin to come along with me. We got there and had a great time. We hung around and played in the pool, went shopping and ate out at a nice resturaunt. She offered to take us to San francisco for a day and we declined, opting to go get our hair done and pampered at the spa. It was a wonderful time to experience and get to know Barbra a little more and get to do some things I definitely would not be doing otherwise. 

Ever since we went there I have been wanting to tell Barbra that I felt bad about having her spend so much money on us. We were there to hang out with barbra and get to know her and when we go the chance to do that more we wer just thinking about things she could do for us. I felt selfness and greedy. I feel like I had taken advantage of her.

I did get the chance to talk to her about it but I don't think that she undstood what I meant. She told me that it was the only time that she was able to get to know me more and she was happy for it. I am glad she felt that way but I still feel like I was way too selfish during that time. I guess I need to get over it. I just didn't want her to think I normally am that greedy and self centered. 

I am impressed with Barbra that she was so nice about things and I have always felt that she is such a nice, honest and humble person. I am greatful for the wonderful role models I have had in my life and there are many others in my family and friends that I take a lot from by their example.  

The night ended pretty quickly. I wished we could have sat around and talked for hours more, but that really isn't possible when you have a full load of kids to get to bed. It was the night that we were going to put up our halloween decorations, so we couldn't stay too long. 

I do enjoy my family. They are fun to be around and Jolene is just so hilarious when she gets in a wacky mood.

So I was also put in charge of setting up a girls night with Jolene and her girls, and Mom and her girls. We will watch a movie and paint nails, wax eyebrows, talk about funny things, maybe play cards and eat yummy food. It should be great fun when I actually plan things out and set a time.

Thanks Jolene for a great night.

Gavin Degraw Concert

So on Saturday Oct 4th we went to the Gavin Degraw concert and Listener's louge. Doug won tickets by texting Gavin to Mix 106. They happened to choose Doug's text and yahoo we got a free date night. It is great doing different things other than the normal dinner and a movie thing. This was my first time going to a concert like that to. 

The Listener's lounge was great. It was in this small room with a bar in the side of the knitting factory( formally known as the Big Easy). They had a buffet for us which consisted of cheese and crackers, veggie platter, baby shrimp cocktail, meatballs, taquitos, and nachos. All items to make up the most least expensive buffet ever. I'm not complaining though, at least it was free. They came around to each table and took our picture and gave us a signed picture of the lady from Charlotte Sometimes. She started the night off for us. She came in and sang three of her songs which I did like. Her music was a little different but interesting. 

This is Charlotte Sometimes. They played three of their songs right before Gavin came out. They were great and I like the way that she trys to interact with the crowd and and talks to everyone. She seems like a fun lady.  

This is when they went around and took pictures of everyone. It was just so exciting, I was so happy to be there.

This is Gavin Degraw. He came out and and told everyone a story of how three people in his entrage were fellons and they were not allowed to pass into Canada unless they paid a $200 fee. Two of them paid it and the other refused and had to stay in the motel 8 until the concert was over.  Then he played and sang his Chariott song which I really enjoyed. It was so much better with out all the background music and instruments. He did a great job. 

Then we got to meet Gavin and take a picture with him. Doug thought that his was a real genuine guy. I thought he seemed like any other guy with a life like that. He seemed like he had a life of only thinking of himself and a lot of free time hanging around with his groupies. He was very laid back but everyone was also particular in trying to do every thing and anything to please him and make him happy. 

I guess that is how life is when you are famous. Everyone is very careful to take care of your needs and make you happy. Everything is pretty much done for you and you just get to lay back, do your thing and get out of there. So great for him.

I

I actually got to meet a famous person, Wow. Fun. 

So the concert didn't start until 8:30 and by the time that we got there, there were no seats left to sit on. So we had to stand in the mosh pit area. It was definitely crowd by thime it all got started but exciting nonetheless. Doug's brother Jeff also won tickets to the concert and we got to hang out with him and his sister Sarah for the whole thing. 

I thought it was funny that when both Charlotte Sometimes and Gavin would talk to the crowd about things I mostly could not relate. I didn't have the same experiences as he did. My life was so different than theirs. 

I really enjoyed the music. Not dirty and up beat so that you really would want to dance to it. It took me back to the time that Katie used to take me dancing with her. I loved to go dancing. It was fun and I got to interact with people and guys that were older than me. I also really enjoyed going out and hanging around Katie because she was such an out going person who I wanted to be like.

As the music got loud it would make your whole body vibrate to and your ears shake until they would start to tickle. I would stand there and close my eyes and some times I could not even take in a deep breath because the music was making my lungs struggle to take in air. I had a space around me that I was very happy for where I did not have to bump up against or be pushed by others. It was just enough room to be comfortable and dance a bit to the music. 

Gavin played several songs that I recognized from off the radio and several I've never heard. I really don't listen to the radio all that much when where ever I go the kids are usually with me. I don't like leaving the radio on for the kids to listen to. 

At the end of the concert Gavin and his band left the room real fast and a constant roar of screaming voices sounded until Gavin came out a did an oncore. I thought my ears would never recover. The ringing in my ears did not go away until we were out of the building. 

Before leaving I saw a lady that I used to work with  and I went up to her to talk. I asked her how things were going and how it was at the office. I had seen her husband when I did the camelsback Duathalon and I stupidly asked about him. She reluctantly explained that she was no longer with him and that he cheated on her and had an affair. Now these people are LDS and I was a bit surprised and now I feel even worse that I brought that up and made her feel uncomfortable. It is really sad, I have heard of a lot of people getting divorsed lately because of infadelity and most of these people are LDS. What the heck is up with that. Why can't people just stay with the person they've got and married to. Why do they have to do such awful things as that and many of them do it for a long time before it is actually found out. Like I mean not just a one time mistake but having actual girlfriends while having a separate family and children. Crazy buisness I tell you, Crazy buisness. 

Other than embarrassing myself in front of my former coworker I had a great night. It took away from my own reality and day to day life. I got have a good time with my husband and it was all free. Can't get much better than that.

Yipee

So my computers are working again. Hoorah. I've missed bloging and my bloging friends. So I decided I would add a whole bunch of new videos and pictures I've taken lately. They are random yes I know, but oh well. I like videos like I've said before. Now you will have something to look at.

These kids love to dance. We are barrowing Katie and Jake's key board because hopefully we can in the future get Cameron some piano lessons going. For right now though the kids us it as a juke box and they rock out to the loudest beats as possible.

This video is just of the kids playing around on th

e trampoline together. We like to go out side on our No TV Tuesdays and play together on the tramp. We started the No TV Tuesday a month or two ago because Cameron is addicted to the TV and he needs to learn to fill his days with something other than the TV.

We had fun taking pictures. All the kids got to take a turn with the camera and these are just the ones I took of the kids.

They are great kids.

Miah loves to dance. She was in her dancing mood and was gettin jiggy with it for a little while before I took this video. She really has fun and I wish the camera would have kept recording for another 10 sec. because she was having fun with the music.

Lilly is good at pouting those likes and trying to prove her point. She gets upset a little too easy sometimes and can get into some pretty rough quarwls with her brother. She had gotten upset this time because Cameron accidentally ran into her on the tramp. I just had to take some video. She was poking out those lips and I thought it was so cute. She is just a 3 year old and most people can relate to experiencing the wild emotions they have. What a funny girl.

And that concludes the last week. Everything before that from the time my computers messed up til last week, I'm going to not try to catch up on. It would take too long and I didn't take as many pictures since I wasn't able to blog. I do have to say, thank goodness for the blog because I would have lost some of my most treasured videos and photos after losing everything on both of our computers. I had also put  a lot of our old photos on our walmart account  and that was great. I would have missed all of the kids' newborn pictures. So All I really miss now is a couple documents we had and the recent 

pictures that I had taken. I definitely recommended getting any family photos and pics that you have saved on your computer onto an online account.