I finally downloaded all my pictures from my phone on to the computer...I only had 453, didn't realize it. Found some good ones.

This is what Crates hair looks like after a good nights sleep.


Crate loves when I put Lumber Jack in his bed


The good ol' brothers


If I can't get to him fast enough he just gives up and is willing to sleep anywhere. Poor little guy.


We love having a baby around here...especially this little baby. I can't get enough of his toothless grins.

He's gonna be the death of me...

apparently the walking tornado thought we loved his couch artwork so much that tonight, while I was nursing again, found a pen and drew on the leather couch. The cream colored microfiber couch is one thing, I know how to get rid of it, leather is a whole different ballgame.

I'm not sure who to punish, him or the child that leaves ink pens out...and I know which child it is. I only have one child that does homework in ink pen.

However, thanks to google, there are only remenants of the pen markings left on the leather and you have to look really hard. I'm glad it's removed before Pops' gets home...I know he wouldn't appreciate seeing that. Not to mention I just sent him a picture today of the couch I want...and I promised him Crate was past the coloring on the couch stage so we wouldn't have to worry about it. I'm thinking we should wait til Lumber Jack is 5 years old before we invest in another piece of furniture. I remember thinking, before I had children of course, that how can mothers not be watching their children...it's the moms fault if furniture gets ruined. Boy was I wrong. You live and learn right, and then you learn not to judge until you've walked in their shoes.

Just gotta clear something up...

So you know how kids say the silliest things? .... Well I heard from a child that said that their parent told them "that we kind of stole a dog" I asked what they meant by this and I guess there is a miss understanding.

OK...So if you've read my blog lately you have seen that we recently acquired a dog. And if you live in my neighborhood you might have seen signs up for a boxer named "Paco" that went missing from it's family a few WEEKS after we got our dog. Let me explain...

One day I was out walking with my two youngest children as I normally do. I saw a dog up ahead and pulled out my mace which I always do when I see a stray dog because you never know how they will react. The dog started to approach me and I realized it was a boxer. We use to own a boxer and this is the only type of dog I am familiar with so once I saw it I put away my mace and let it sniff me and the boys. I then told the dog to "go home" and it didn't. I proceeded to walk my remaining four miles and the dog continued to follow me. This dog had no collar let alone any type of tags marking its identification. I brought the dog home, fed her, posted and add multiple times on craigslist, called the pound to let them know we had a stay dog and to see if anyone had called in looking for this particular type of dog. I received no response from craigslist or from the pound.

Well a few weeks later several signs went up around the neighborhood notifying the neighbors that a sweet family was missing their dog, a boxer! I saw the signs one morning on the way to take my boys to school. I quickly pulled over to get the phone number listed and after reading the description of the missing dog realized we in fact did NOT have their dog. For starters their dog is a MALE and the one we have is a FEMALE (I could be mistaken but last time I checked dogs don't change genders if they run away from home). Their dog has what is called a brindle color of hair and ours is known as a fawn coloring. Their dog has a clipped tail our does not. They even had two separate pictures of their dog and it IS NOT the same dog.

If anyone who reads this knows the owner of the dog we have we are MORE than happy to return her to her owner. She has been taken well care of here and has been well loved but we are not completely attached. Most of all we are defiantly NOT dog nappers...we leave that up to Cruella DeVille.

We're trying to live the laws of the land and the laws of the gospel...thus we don't steal. If by chance you might have had this silly conversation with your child or they possibly overheard a conversation about this dog and heard that we "stole a dog" please help them understand all the details of the situation! If you have any questions or know the dogs rightful owner don't hesitate to call! Thank you!

New Name

On the way to church today the boys asked why they had to call me mom. I didn't have a very good reason why, I just told them that's the way it works. They decided they wanted to come up with a new name for me and they one they decided on was "Diary Queen" I had to laugh to myself because little do they know how much meaning that really holds in my life right now. ...Nursing my four month old on command. :)

So all afternoon I've been saying "what" to the name of Diary Queen.

Yesterday I signed the two oldest up for baseball...As I was filling out the paperwork I had the conversation in my head of why I was doing what I was doing. I'm coming to grips with the fact that Saturdays will be full until May and week nights will be busier than they already are. And to think I only have 18 more years of sports...Hooray.

Lumber Jack and a few weeks of waking up VERY often through the night...like every 1-2 hours. The last few nights he's been back to a solid 10 hours of sleep. I hope it sticks.

Crate-the-walking-tornado found a blue and red pen on his fathers desk and colored on the cream colored couch along with his green marker. I happened to take 3.57 minute shower and choose not to keep him in the bathroom with me as I usually do to avoid stuff like this. I guess I learned my lesson.

I also found Crate once again sitting on the six foot cinder block wall...not his first time of doing this. I guess I can't sit and nurse anymore...and to think I thought the other two were busy boys...I had know idea what was coming.

Time to put the tornado to bed and call the hazmat crew in to clean up his mess.

Green marker on my cream colored couch is evidence that I live with a two year old.

A set of Ronald Dahl books lying in random places around the house is evidence that I live with an eight year old.

Special Papers (read: every paper that is brought home from school is special) piled up on the counter is evidence that I live with a 5 year old.

Nursing pads and spit up rags are evidence that I live with a four month old.

An absent husband/father is evidence that we live with a good man willing to support his family and serve his Heavenly Father.

A smile on my face is evidence that I find joy in and love those that I live with.

How is this for an awesome quote...

"God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as he always has. But he can't if you don't pray, and he can't if you don't dream, In short, he can't if you don't believe."

~Jeffrey R. Holland

It's been busy...Pop's has kept me busy lately. At least parts of it are fun. Lately I've been shopping for him and staging houses. The fun part is the shopping, the not so fun part is the two year old and 3 month old coming along. The fun part is that its a nice budget, the not so fun part is that it's not my money or Pops' which means I don't get to keep any of the stuff. The fun part is decorating a house with accents, the not so fun part is that it is not my house.

When I'm ready to update my bathroom decor or update little things around my house I'll know where to go and I know the colors I want to use!

Can it be that Lumber Jack is already four months old? NO, this can't be going by so fast.

Welcome 2012

I think it was in 2010 that I committed to blog every single day of the year. If my memory serves me right I only missed a few days of not blogging. I thought about doing that again this year and then I quickly remembered that when 2010 was over I told myself I'd never do that again. So I'm not. It was fun for the memories but not fun doing it. Anyhow...

Anyone want a free dog? I've had issues with her tonight.

Anyone want free children? Just kidding.

Anyone want free chocolate? I have a stash that I desperately need to give away before I consume it all.

That's all the free stuff I have at the moment.

Backing up a week or so...

Christmas, let me talk about Christmas before I forget about it.

So on Friday, Christmas Eve eve...or the day before Christmas Eve, we headed over to Aunt Jennifer's house to meet up with all the cousins except the Colliers who live to far away...next year right Julie? All of us, yes grandparents and cousins and aunts and uncles and uncles girlfriends spent the night at Aunt Jennifer's house to kick off Christmas. Friday night we ate the best fajita's known to man...thanks to Uncle Ryan, the master of all grill masters. The grilled meat and veggies were amazing and we had all the fixings to go along with it and a whole bunch of other food to snack on through the night. After dinner the kids played and then got dressed up in their costumes to reinact the first Christmas night. Buster played Joseph, cousins Ashlynn was Mary, Boss and Crate were wise men, Randi and Brayden were Shepard's, Chloe was the star/angel and Saige was whatever she wanted to be. And of couse Lumber Jack was baby Jesus. Pops was the narrator, Mamie played the piano and the rest of us were the choir. This is a tradition that is like 100 years old in my family...every year the youngest generation gets to do this. It was sweet to watch them again this year.

Once that was done we bundled up and loaded in the back of Uncle Ryans trailer and headed off to do some caroling to a few older couples not to far away. Crate was in heaven riding on the trailer, the boys loved being silly and singing in a silly voice and I'm sure the neighborhood was more than happy to have us be back home. They all had a blast.

Everyone settled in to bed quickly for the most part and then Saturday morning we had a delicious breakfast made by Aunt Jeaniece, after which we opened presents from the grandparents, played around and headed out to come back home. The boys thought it was so cool to have everyone spend the night and they hope they can do that every year.

Christmas eve night we headed out east to spend the evening with Pops' side of the family. We ate yummy food, hung out, opened more presents from Grandma, the boys played and played with their cousins and then we called it a night and headed home.

In following tradition the boys got to open one gift on Christmas eve...which is always PJ's. Once again they thought their PJ's were "the coolest thing ever"...I think they were just overly excited. Then we made each person's bed in our master bedroom and they all fell asleep. Each Christmas eve we all sleep in the same bedroom...it makes Christmas morning happen for all of us at the same time. I like it that way.

Christmas morning came and before heading out to see what Santa left we ready Luke 2...which was funny cause the boys were quoting it as Pops was reading, I guess they've heard it a time or two. Then headed out to find a new bike for Buster and scooters for Boss and Crate. Lumber Jack was thrilled to find a ring toy...ok not really but the other three were pretty stoked.

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year we needed to get moving after presents...honestly I wasn't every excited to hurry and get all dressed up but I have to say that the highlight of Christmas day was going to church. The spirit was really strong that day and the music really touched me. It seemed to make Christmas so much more special being at church. I wish every Christmas could be on Sunday. I was hoping to get a family picture of all of us dressed up but Pops had to leave about 30 minutes before us and he didn't get home until about an hour after us so that didn't happen but they all looked very handsome.

The rest of the day we spend hanging out with each other. I made a ham for dinner along with Pioneer Woman's green bean dish, a de-lish potato dish, raspberry salad and homemade rolls and raspberry butter. To top it off we had cucumber/lime water and ate at the dinning room table. The boys actually had descent manners but when the dinner was over I realized I forgot to put out the name plates I had spent an hour making a few days earlier...not cool. I will be saving them for next year.

Once again Christmas was so neat and fun for all of us. For me my favorite gift was the one I'm using right now...Pops surprised me with replacing my computer. I was so excited, and happy to retire my eight year old computer...now I just need to figure out how the Mac operating system works. Hopefully by next Christmas I'll be a pro at this thing.

I'm excited for a new year and think our focus word for the year will be "LOVE"...More on that later.

P90X~2 started this week. Holy Cow can you say intense? Must go to bed so I'm ready for the early workout.

P.S. I'm not proof reading this...it's too long so I hope there are no major mistakes. :)