Holy cow! Time literally flies by and sometimes it feels there are just not enough hours in the day. A quick recap of life.

Last week we took a last minute quick trip to Carlsbad, CA and visited Legoland.(We left Monday afternoon and came back Wednesday.) The boys of course had a blast. When I ask Crate what the best part of the trip was his response is "ruff, ruffs" which translated means "waffles". The kid is obsessed with waffles and the hotel we stayed at had big huge ones for breakfast. He was in heaven. I do have to admit they were really good.

The best part of the trip for me was the drive to and from California. I drove the entire time both ways cause Pops had to work and prepare some big upcoming church assignments. I'm thankful for technology that allowed us to take this trip and that Pops didn't have to miss much work. Is it wrong though that he walked around Legoland with his ipad? I say, "heck, if that's what it takes for a get-a-way I'm game!" I'm just grateful he has business to take care of...it could be the opposite. Anyhow the drive made it great for me because I did absolutely nothing except drive for 5 hours. Pops had to deal with the issues of "I want a snack" or "when are you going to be there?" There may or may not have been issues such as "he's touching me" or "that's not the movie I want to watch" or "he can see better cause he's closer to the screen..." I just sat there with my ear phones in and listened to the entire general conference session for October 2011 once again. I also listened to the Priesthood session...man that's some good stuff. It was like 10 total hours of complete bliss. The stinky part was though that Pops had it relatively easy...the boys were almost perfect during the ride over there and back. For some reason when I'm the one not driving and tending to them it's not the case. Go figure. The ride home was blissful though because Crate and Lumber Jack both fell asleep about 10 minutes into the drive and literally did not wake up again until we got home. We didn't stop the entire way home. The gas tank was on E but we made it. We got home late Wednesday night...just in time for thanksgiving.

(Is this not the best site for a parent to see during a road trip?)

My assignment for Thanksgiving this year was to bring the rolls and potatoes. I tried two new recipes for these and luckily they both turned out great! The potatoes came from
Pioneer Woman and the rolls were homemade crescent rolls with a cran-raspberry butter...recipe courtesy of my friend. I have to admit I thought they were divine and enjoyed more than my fair share. But what's new...when it comes to food, especially carbs I tend to always enjoy more than my fair share. I'll take almost any type of bread over chocolate any day. We had a enjoyable afternoon with Pops' side of the family and ate our little hearts out.

In other news, we were invited to a surprise 30th birthday party for a good friend. Since she was born in the 80's the theme was an 80's theme...thus we got to dress up. Pops was calling around to some more "mature" friends of his in the stake to find a "members only" jacket to wear. I didn't know what one was but he said they were the bomb in the 80's. Well no one had one...I wonder why :)... so we took a quick trip to Goodwill and low and behold what was hanging there...A members only redish jacket in his size. By his reaction you would of thought he won the lottery. He's not one to show a ton of emotion about things but this made him pretty darn excited. It was kind of funny. Anyhow he happened to find some nasty white washed jeans and an original Tron shirt. FYI the original Tron movie came out in 1982...it's funny that he remembers that but I have to remind him of the kids birth dates...
Anyhow I picked up a few things myself, slapped on some blue eye shadow and looked like I was ready for a Sinead O'Conner concert. Remember her?...one of her songs brings back great memories of my 5th grade recess. That's another story. Anyhow...guess who won the prize! Nope, not Pops with his cool "Members Only" jacket but yours truly! Like totally rad, huh!


(To bad you can't see Pops' pegged pants with his matching red high tops...and yes, he did grow a nasty mustache for this...it worked out that he didn't have any church meetings that week so he was able to grow it. I'm glad he shaves.)

We had a great time at the party and once again I am grateful for good friends who accept you for who you are and for fun games.

The tree is up and the house is decorated. This is how Lumber spent his time while we decorated... (He loves his thumb)


But then he joined in on the fun!


We still have the dog...not quite sure what I was thinking by wanting to keep her. Anyone know of someone missing a dog here in the area? She's awesome with the boys, quiet and pretty obedient but is still a dog and does shed hair. Luckily it's short hair.

Monday I felt like this house was smelling like dog and it desperately needed to be cleaned. If I wait during the day to tackle the major cleaning I feel like I ignore the boys and then it literally takes me all day. So yesterday morning I set the alarm for 3:30am got up, did all the sweeping, mopping, bathrooms laundry, dishes, dusting and finished up just prior to 7am in time to get the boys ready for school. It was awesome. I wasn't interrupted at all, no distractions and I had the whole day ahead with everything here at the house caught up on. I think this will be my plan of attack once a week until I can hire someone. :) I would highly recommend it, I got a 40 minute nap on the couch in the afternoon and was good to go until bed time.

However...it's now 24 hours later and you would never know I was cleaning...Thanks to the dog though the floor has stayed cleaner than normal. Maybe it's worth keeping her just for that reason, a personal broom that doesn't argue or give excuses when they're asked to sweep the floor. I'm sure my kids are the only ones that would care not to sweep a floor ever again in their lives. I hope their wives LOVE to sweep, because they don't.

Speaking of bedtime...it's about that time now.

This week Lumber had is two month check up. He's weighing in at 15lbs 11oz. And really long I just can't remember the exact inches. He's at 100% for both height and weight...at least he's proportionate, right? I got jipped (don't know how to spell that one)on having a new born because I birthed a 3 month old and now at two months I'm carrying around the size of a 6 month old baby but he's big and healthy and happy. So it all works out.

A very friendly dog followed me home on my walk today. And she's still with us...we might have just picked up a new pet if we can decide on a name. I'm not one to take in stray animals, actually I hate strays, but this one is a boxer like the dog we used to have and is so well behaved. I'm sure a family somewhere is missing her so for now we'll take care of her. Tomorrow we'll post signs to try to find the owner...if not we might claim her. It kind of grosses me out not knowing exactly where she came from so we gave her a super good bath tonight and made her clean and pretty. The boys are in heaven, especially Crate. For Pops...well let's just say the rest of us have a lot of kissing up to do around here for him to get on board and let her stay around. For me, I'll be happy to have another female in the house...even if it comes with four legs.

It's been pretty crazy around here lately and we need some good old fashioned family time...I just booked a hotel and got a screaming rate...can't wait to get a way. It'll be a surprise to the boys and I think they'll be stoked! And a HUGE thank you to a more than very generious sister...you know who you are and what you did. Let's just say no one compares to her!

Can you say embarrassing?

So last week I received an email from The Pioneer Woman about a pork roast with apples and onions.I happened to have a pork roast sitting in the fridge that needed to be cooked and I had everything on hand so I decided to make it. It was a pretty big roast so that afternoon I decided to invite some friends over for dinner and asked them to stick around for family home evening. That was at about 2pm and they were scheduled to come at 6pm. Well...I checked the roast at 5pm and thought to myself..."it must cook really fast this last hour." I checked it again at 5:45pm and sort of freaked out. It was still pretty much raw. (Give me a break, I've only had 12.5 years to learn to cook...) After a slight/major panic attack I had Pops take a look at it and he suggested pizza or take out Chinese.

He called our friends (i was in the kitchen with a paper bag over my face learning to breathe again, and to embarrassed to call them) he explained our dilemma, they decided on Chinese, Pops left to pick it up, they came over, we ate, had FHE and by 9pm that roast made my house smell like heaven. We ended up eating it the following night along with the wild rice and pecans. Let me just say...IT WAS AMAZING. I'm not a huge fan of roasts but I would defiantly do this meal again. It really is the perfect fall/winter meal plus it's super easy to put together. I've since used the meat for burritos and tonight pulled some out of the freezer and threw it in the veggie stir fry I was making...Pops doesn't care for the veggie part so I put it in there to make him happy. A little meat for that man makes him happy...I like men that are happy around here...big men and small men.

I was so thankful our friends were gracious enough to roll with the punches. We had a good time with them and it helped me realize once again the importance of good friends. Sometimes life gets busy and I'm glad we took a night to relax and enjoy the company.

I've realized what things make my days a success right now...

Those things include (but are not limited too...)

no poop leaking out of diapers in a 24 hour period.

a play room cleaned up at the end of the day.

dinner that the entire family enjoyed.

floors that do not say "crunch, crunch" when you walk on them.

no laundry in the laundry baskets.

kissing the spouse even if it is just a peck.

and happy children.

My days may not consist of meeting with the big wigs at the office or writing a law that would better the country or a paycheck (big or small) but that's alright. I'm a no-name mother of four doing the most important job I'll have on this earth. And I'm doing my dream job...I've wanted this job since I can remember and that makes me happy. I'm contributing to society one child at a time.

Crate spilled the beans today...literally. There are raw kidney beans all over the pantry floor.

Then Boss decided to "slide" in the beans. Now they are all over the kitchen floor.

And to think this all happened in 54 seconds while I was getting something for the oldest child.

I'm headed for the chocolate...

Blessing day

Little Lumber was blessed on October 16, 2011 by his Pops. It was an awesome blessing. We did it that day since family was still in town from the wedding and because I knew that if we didn't do it soon Lumber Jack wouldn't fit into his blessing outfit. :) My Aunt made this blessing outfit for Buster when he was born and each boy has been able to wear it since. Lumber started out big and was getting bigger by them minute so we needed to get that taken care of. He didn't cry during the blessing and was awake the whole time. I considered doing a luncheon afterwards like I did with the three other boys but most my family wasn't able to stay around for it and Pops was scheduled with meetings a good chunk of the afternoon so he wouldn't be around and because of a few other things it just worked out better to pass on one this time. I enjoyed spending the Sunday afternoon with the boys.

Student of the Month

Boss was sad when Buster got student of the month for September and he didn't. I explained that if we works really hard and is a great example in class his teacher could select him sometime during the year as student of the month for his class. He was thrilled when they announced his name during morning announcements the very next month. I was just as excited...I didn't want it to come to the end of the year and have to try and explain why he was selected all year long. :)

We got to go as a family to the school early one morning and eat breakfast with all the other students of the month and the school principal. Boss was on cloud nine. He's doing awesome in school and since I'm bragging about him I will throw in there that his teacher just informed me this past week he passed a pilot test for kindergartners with the highest score in the entire kindergarten...so high in fact she's thinking it might be best for him to skip kinder and start first grade. I told her that's flattering but we'll stay put for now. She agreed to challenge him in different ways during the school day and I'll continue to work with him here at home. The kids mind is amazing...however his listening skills here at home can use some work.


(and yes, that's chocolate on his face from his breakfast of champions...donuts...)