December is half over!?

Life is busy these days! I'm not sure where last month went or where this one is going!! The good news is, we seem to be surviving!

Anyway, I'm not going to go back and try to catch up on everything that has gone on because I've decided that probably gets boring. Instead I'll mention a few highlights from the past week or so.

The girls both had concerts last week. Rylie is playing the violin this year and Alyssa is singing in the Honor Choir again.

Rylie & her friend Leah...

Alyssa and her friend Courtney...


Friday night I finally got around to getting some pics of the kids for Christmas cards. Here's a comparison pic w/last years...
2008
2009

Saturday night Josiah and I went to the GoDaddy Holiday party...

It's always fun to get dressed up to go out!

Last night for FHE we made Gingerbread houses...





Our final works of art...







Tomorrow I get to go on a field trip w/Camden's class to see The Nutcracker. I've never seen it before so I'm looking forward to it. Thursday is filled up with parties at the school that I get to help out at and Friday Trenton has field day which I will go and have fun with him at. Friday is also a 1/2 day and then after that they are out for Christmas break! YAHOO!

I'm so close to being done w/Christmas shopping! I am hopefully going to get cards in the mail this evening and a couple packages shipped off. Then I can finally get down to the fun holiday baking! (Intermingled w/some washing of dishes, laundry etc!)

I hope everyone is enjoying this Holiday season!

Facebook is overrated!!

I really don't use facebook all that much. I go to facebook. I read through what people have posted. I occasionally leave comments to other people's posts. I rarely post my own comments though or update my status. I consider it from time to time and I actually have a few times, but really it's not me. I've always felt like facebook is better utilized by people who have the need/want to be heard. I'm fairly low-key. But, I do like that I can quickly say something to someone without having to call them. I don't like talking on the phone much. It's always awkward when you need to go but the other person on the other end is still talking and you don't want to be rude and interrupt. The worst is when someone else calls YOU and there's a lull in the conversation but again, you don't want to be rude and say "Ok, I'll let you go..." but at the same time, why should you be the one to keep the conversation going if they called?! I don't know, maybe I need to take a course in phone etiquette.

Anyway, contrary to popular belief...I didn't log in to blogger to rant. I actually wanted to post my Halloween pictures since FB was being retarded and wasn't letting me upload them there successfully....which lead to the rant.








I'm super duper happy that Halloween is over and done with for another year!

Since I'm here, I may as well fill in a little bit of what has gone on in the past month.

The other day I got to be a chaperone for a field trip that the kindergartner's were taking to Schnepf Farms. It wasn't a super organized field trip. They pretty much told us to do what we want and to meet back for lunch at a certain time and then a little later to pick pumpkins. Trenton and I spent the day standing in lines and riding rides...


The train...
the rollercoaster...
the big swing...
the bumblebee...
the big slide...

Last weekend the girls and I went to an activity days recognition that the activity days leaders were holding for the girls in our ward. We got to paint each other's faces to look like scarecrows...



They supplied the rest of the scarecrow getup and backdrop for fun picture taking. I didn't get any on my camera though.

We carved pumpkins this year. It's not our favorite things to do, but we all enjoyed it...I think even Josiah got into it...





The end results... The "scared Elmo" looking one was the one I carved. Josiah carved the "Felix the cat w/fangs" looking one. That wasn't the idea when we started though.

A few other things that happened in October include a trip to the dentist w/Alyssa. She had to get a tooth pulled. We will be taking her a couple more times before the end of this year to get her mouth all squared away before we have to pay another $50 copay. As it turned out, we overpayed on Trenton's stuff by about $50 so the remainder of what Alyssa needs done will mostly be covered by that credit. YAY!

We are holding off on piano until January because we'd like to have a little Christmas, atleast. Things are a little tight right now but we have faith that things will look brighter in the not too distant future.

I got to go to parent teacher conferences last week and came out a very proud mother. You might even say I was beaming. It wasn't even about the grades, although they all are doing pretty well. The girls each had 4 A's and 1 B and Camden had all A's. (Trenton doesn't get letter grades yet.) It was more about the way each of their teachers went on about them. I love having children who are loved by their teachers. Not because they brown-nose or try to be the teacher's favorite, but just simply because they are well behaved kids. I was concerned about Camden's teacher because, well, I just hadn't gotten the best impression of her to that point. But after getting through that conference, I was able to go to the rest without any concerns.

Coming up this week will be my 1 year anniversary since I started running. Insane! I'm surprised myself to say I'm still running 3 days a week. Anyway, I've set a new goal which I'm going to start tomorrow (instead of the 7th which is the anniversary) and start fresh. Eating better, no more Dr Pepper (again) and whatever else goes along with it. My goal is 10 more lbs gone by New Years. I went down a total of 20 lbs in a few months when I started last year, but put a couple back on...so I think it's totally do-able.

Anyway, Christmas music was playing on the Sounds of the Season channel this morning, so everyone can FINALLY be HAPPY!!

YAY for October!!

Kids are funny! I got up and dressed at 6 this morning, so I could run to the store for some bread before Josiah left for work, and when I walked out of my room the girls came out of their room exclaiming "Mom! It's COLD outside!" Rylie continued with "I was just on the internet and it said it's 70°! It's soo cold!" They were serious. I had to laugh.

September is already gone. It's so hard to believe! I've been busy with life and haven't had much time to blog. Not that I was doing the best job keeping up on it anyway.

Piano lessons started back up a couple weeks ago. We took the summer off so their teacher could have a baby and move and get settled. Camden is now taking lessons also. He loves it and I hope that doesn't go away! He's doing really well for a beginner! After his first lesson he was really excited to go back. For whatever reason he thought the next time would be a recital. He was a little disappointed when I told him he has to take piano lessons for a little while before he gets to do a recital.

I've been going down to the school 4 days a week to help out in a couple classrooms. I'm in Trenton's class Mon/Wed/Fri for about an hour each day, and on Tuesdays I go into Rylie's classroom in the afternoon for a little over an hour. I enjoy having that connection with the school rather than not having a clue as to what's going on.

On the 22nd of September, the 5th graders had an evening field trip to a D-Backs game which Josiah and Rylie went to together.





Labor Day morning we took the kids down to the park nice and early and played some t-ball.

















Josiah and I have been frequenting the Chiropractor lately. I started going because I jarred up my upper back/neck area and the friend that I run with kept suggesting that I go in to see her husband (the chiropractor). For Josiah it's been more of an attempt to relieve some work related stress/tension that builds up in his back & hopefully it will also help to improve his immune system.

Josiah got moved to a different location for work which is about 20 minutes further away. It's not fun having to fill up on gas more than once a week. It's kinda like a small demotion. Especially when you throw in the fact that they started taking out more money for health insurance, but lowered our coverage. We are grateful he still has a job though. I'm still watching my neighbor's little girl Monday - Thursday, before and after school. It's nice having that little extra money at the end of each week. It helps more than I expected it would.

Now it's October and the kids have been talking about Halloween costumes for weeks. I can not wait to get that out of the way! It's such a headache every year! I would much rather skip it and use the money that I use on costumes, for Christmas instead.

I should probably clarify...

I think when I posted yesterday, I was mostly just frustrated at myself because of this lame desire to eat even when I know I'm not hungry, and I didn't clarify some things.

I drink about four 20 oz bottles of water a day. I keep raw almonds and/or walnuts (which I love both) on hand for snacking. The only "junk foods" that I keep around on a regular basis are chips and fruit snacks which are for the kids' lunches and for the most part, I don't go to those when I'm in a munchy mood.

In the last week, what I found that I really wanted was ice cream one day and didn't have any on hand, and then over the weekend I had a serious "need" for chocolate which I, again, didn't have any on hand. I purposely try and avoid buying those types of things at the store, because then they stare me in the face and beckon me to partake. (I should probably add that I did eventually make my way to DQ last week for a Blizzard and on Sunday evening, I made some no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies...to help w/my chocolate craving. Just so you know I'm not trying to claim to be strong when I have these urges.)

I make homemade smoothies several times a week to have for breakfast or more often for dinner. Yesterday for breakfast my smoothie contained 4 frozen strawberries, 1/2 a frozen banana, a handful of frozen grapes, 1/2 an apple & 1 C of skim milk. (Occasionally I'll use 1 c of OJ instead of milk.) So it was a fairly healthy smoothie. That was around 7 am. By 10:30, I was wanting something more and I try to not eat lunch til noon. Maybe because I'd gone running at 5:45 yesterday morning and then had to walk to and from the school (10 minutes in each direction) not to mention the walking around the classroom that I did before returning home, my body was just ready for something else? I also think maybe the fact that I'm due for my period within the next few days? Does that play a factor here?

I think my biggest problem is that I sit around at home most of the day, all alone and usually not doing anything very productive. When I'm busy, my mind is on other things and I don't have that same desire to eat. I need to figure out some things that I can do that will keep my mind occupied. Ugh! I'm a lost cause!

What is my problem?!

I need help. Lately I have been struggling with this not feeling satisfied after I've eaten. I don't want to get to the point of feeling stuffed after a meal, but I want to not feel like I need to go munch because I'm not full. Does that make sense? What is my problem? My regular activity includes running 30 minutes/3 days a week, walking to and from the school every day sometimes up to 3 times in one day, back & forth. (I've been helping out in classrooms 4 days a week.) This doesn't seem like it's enough physically to balance out what I'm eating. What can I do?? I need suggestions. Any and all are appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Now I must walk down to the school to pick up the kids! The good news is, it's only 95° outside.

Yummy

A couple of weeks ago, 3 of my sister's-in-law did a "baking in the kitchen together from a distance" sort of thing. They had all decided to bake one of their favorite recipes from their childhood that their mom (my mother-in-law, aka Nana) used to make, and since they all live too far apart to get together and bake, they instead baked in their own kitchens but on the same day and then blogged about it. What a fun idea, I thought.

Well, I wanted to try out that recipe for myself because from their pics, on each of their seperate blogs, it looked sooo good! And they each customized it to their liking. One did a regular cake form, another did bundt cake and the 3rd one did muffins. The recipe was for Sour Cream Blueberry Cake. I opted to try some mini muffins. Muffins for the convenience and mini because that is the size of pan I have. After filling the pan the first time though, I decided to pour the rest into a bundt cake pan.



Blueberry muffins are not my favorite but this is soo YUMMY! I altered the directions very slightly because it wasn't going to work very well w/mini muffins, but it still turned out super good!

The recipe: Nana's Sour Cream Blueberry Cake

1/2 cup softened sweet butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups blueberries
1/2 cup brown sugar

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour 9x13 pan (or a bundt pan). Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well. Mix dry ingredients together and add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream, ending with the dry mixture. Stir in vanilla and 1 cup of the blueberries; Pour half the batter into prepared pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and the other cup of blueberries. Cover with the rest of the batter. Bake 40 minutes.

Ok, so what I changed was that I just put all the blueberries into the batter and then w/the muffins, I just sprinkled brown sugar on top, since it would have been too tedious to try and get just a tiny bit of batter into each mini muffin hole, a few blueberries, some brown sugar per each and then a little more batter. When I poured the rest into the bundt pan, I did 1/2 first then layered the remaining brown sugar and then the rest of the batter. The cake ended up turning out better for me because I didn't quite leave the muffins in long enough so the tops were tearing off. Which everyone prefers muffin tops anyway, so no big deal.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! You won't be sorry!

One down...

We managed to survive the first week of school! Hooray!

I like to compare years, so here's last year's first then this year...

There were a couple days that Camden didn't want to get out of bed but other than that, we haven't had many problems. Really. He's been complaining about his teacher being "mean". I have mixed feelings about her myself. She's an older teacher, which isn't my problem. I'm not quite sure what it is about her though. I think I just didn't get a very good impression of her on meet the teacher night. She didn't seem very interactive w/the parents. She talked to Camden but didn't take much time to really talk to Josiah and I which I think kinda bothers me. Anyway, several days after school this week Camden was complaining that he got "yelled" at for doing nothing. I had to explain to him that he just needs to make sure he's staying on task; not talking when she is, looking at her when she's talking, and doing whatever he's supposed to be doing...when he's supposed to be doing it. That way when she "yells" he will know that it's not directed at him. We'll see how that goes.

Hope everyone else survived their first week of school!

Almost...

Just a few more days til all the kids are back in school! Summer is ALMOST over! YAY! Don't get me wrong. I love my kids! I'm just looking forward to a little bit of peace and quiet. After this week I could definitely use some.

I have been watching my neighbors little girls all week, from 7am until about 4:30pm. They are really good little girls, but having 2 extra kids is a LOT of extra noise. My neighbor across the street has been very kind and taken my own girls for me a couple days for a few hours each time. She just has one daughter and enjoys having my girls over because she can finally get some free time. My girls love going over there also. It's a win-win situation. I have also had her daughter over a couple times this week which is even more noise, but well worth it for the exchange.

Last night the class lists were posted at the school. Rylie's name, for whatever reason, was not listed. I need to call down there this morning and find out what the deal is. Tonight is "meet the teacher" night and I'd prefer her to go back to school already knowing what class she's in as opposed to her having to wait and find out the first day. Alyssa isn't thrilled about her teacher. It's the one she did NOT want. She's heard that this teacher is mean. I explained to her that it is mostly that she is "mean" to the kids who are disruptive. Alyssa is a very good student however, so I'm sure she will not have any problems. I'm not familiar w/the teacher that Camden got but the girls say she's nice. And Trenton got Camden's teacher from last year which is what I was hoping for.

A couple weeks ago I got to go see "Wicked" with my mom and sister. I honestly didn't know what it was until just a couple days before we went when I finally asked my mom. I feel kinda silly that I didn't know. I mean, I knew it was a broadway production and that I've only ever heard that people love it, but as far as the plot. I had no clue that it had anything to do w/The Wizard of Oz.


*****************************

Now for some miscellaneousness...

I chopped Rylie's hair a few weeks ago only I was dumb and braided it first thinking it would make it easier to just cut it across since it's sooo thick, and then I'd just make it even after that. Well, I considered the fact that the weaving of the braid would bring the hair up a little in length, so I needed to come down a little further w/the scissors for it to not be shorter than what Rylie wanted. *Tip: Don't braid your daughter's hair before cutting. If anything, just put it into a ponytail and cut it above the holder. It was a mess. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it, but at the time I was just horrified! The 2 sides were fine but it went way up in the middle, so the end result was her hair being a couple inches shorter than she had wanted. Fortunately she's very forgiving!



I was quite surprised after that to find that Alyssa was still willing to let me trim her hair. I will admit though, she was a little hesitant.



Josiah's sunburn, which resulted in sun poisoning...


shedding his skin...
This is one of those things for me that is like nails on chalkboard. Josiah wanted me to help him peel it off, but something about the way it feels between your fingers as you're pulling it away...ew! (And I have no problem sqeezing his zits, so it's not like I just don't like to touch him...)

Baking some "cooks" as they are called around here...
We've actually made lots of yummy cookies over the summer. I've found that Rylie is really good for helping out w/that sort of thing.

The Phillies were in town so Josiah took the boys to see them...




I had a yard sale which the kids insisted on having a stand of some sort but since we didn't have any lemons for making lemonade, I let them sell the soda and water. Alyssa did a great job of advertising...


I got a kick out of it. She rode up and down the street (a few houses on either side of us) chanting "Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Water for sale! [insert address here]! 50 cents each!" Over and over again. Good times! Sadly it was a HOT day and we really didn't have many "customers" as they were being referred to as. Next time though! Better watch out!

Tomorrow Trenton has one last (for now) dentist appointment. In all he's had 3 teeth pulled, 2 baby root canals, 3 spacers (well 3 after tomorrow...he's getting the last one put in plus a permanent filling put over the last baby root canal that he had done 2 weeks ago.) and atleast 1 regular filling, maybe 2. I don't remember for sure. It's just been an expensive journey especially since Nitrous Oxide is $50 per high. Not to mention the teeth he's had root canals on will come out eventually. One of the teeth that they just did a regular filling on will actually need to be pulled once the tooth behind it has grown in. The dentist isn't sure how long the filling will actually hold up because the cavitiy was so big. I have an appointment for all 4 of them for the 21st to get cleanings. I can't wait to find out who we need to start on next and how much work needs to be done! YAY!

Hope everyone is enjoying the last few days/weeks of their summer vacation!

Little bits of random

A couple weeks ago I was sitting at my desk when Trenton came in and said "mom". I turned around and this is what I saw...



You gotta admit, at first glance that's kinda creepy looking! Of course each of the kids needed to have a turn as well as a picture taken...





We moved into this house last July and the kids swam well into September...maybe even October. They started swimming again this year in late March, early April. Daily. Several times a day even, on some days. (Especially this summer.) In all that time I hadn't had to deal w/any green hair until the Saturday of Alyssa's Baptism. Later that day Rylie went to a friend's birthday/pool party. She had been swimming before she left so her hair was wet. I helped her to get it brushed before going and there was nothing wrong w/it. That evening after she showered I helped her again brush her hair while it was wet only this time....It was GREEN! Like gross, seaweed looking, green. EWWW! I suggested she get back in the shower and try washing it several more times, but still green. It was already well into the evening so there wasn't really anywhere I could take her (salon-wise) to get help and we had 8am church the next day. I couldn't have my daughter going to church w/green hair. I don't care that I've seen other girls at church w/green hair, they weren't my daughter. I quickly started browsing google. There were suggestions of special shampoo for that sort of thing but I didn't want to run out and try to find it, not to mention how much money I probably woulda had to fork over for it. There was another suggestion for vineger and one for lemon juice. I tried the vineger but still nothing. Finally I came across the suggestion to use ketchup. Sure enough, got it out. I got some before and after pics. Take a look..





Anyway, we are barely surviving the summer. It's been soooo hot the last couple weeks. The last couple days the sky has been teasing us w/clouds and lightning, but so far nothing exciting. Fortunately, as I mentioned previously, the kids have been able to go swimming several times a day.

I'm mostly done w/all the school shopping. Each of the kids could still use a couple more pairs of shorts but decent shorts have been hard to find this year. I refuse to buy the super short shorts for my girls and I don't like the elastic waistbands in shorts other than sports type shorts for the boys, or the girls, for that matter! Shoes are taken care of as well as backpacks and lunch boxes. I've picked up a few school supplies but will have to wait til 'meet the teacher night' to decide what specifics we need. It all starts in 3 weeks! YAY!

Starting Aug 3rd I'll be watching my neighbors 2 little girls. The oldest starts Kindergarten this year though and the youngest they are actually putting into an all day preschool/daycare sort of thing, so technically I'll only have the older one for an hour before and after school and then the weeks that there's no school, I'll have both of them. It'll be nice to bring in a small amount of money. I wish it were more, but hey, I'm sure I could go out and find a job if it really starts to bother me, right?

I hope everyone is having a super great Friday! I gotta go bake some cookies w/Rylie now! YAY! For awesome momness! HA!

June

I don't know if anyone is even bothering to check my blog anymore. I can't say I'd blame anyone for not. I've been fairly MIA the last several weeks.

June was a busy month for us. It started out w/Alyssa's birthday on the 2nd, followed by Josiah's on the 4th, Alyssa's baptism on the 13th, Father's Day on the
21st, and Trenton's birthday on the 29th. Not to mention, everything else that fell in between.

For Alyssa's birthday this year, we didn't do a regular birthday party. She decided that what she wanted was to get her ears (re)pierced, so that's what we did.




She blew out a candle in a birthday brownie on the day of her birthday.


We baked Josiah some cookies for his birthday present...
(he also got some software for his computer that he'd been wanting..but that was 1/2 birthday, 1/2 Father's day present)

...and a homemade angel food cake w/homemade cream cheese frosting...
(not the most attractive looking cake, but it sure was tasty!)

Alyssa was baptized on the 13th by Josiah.





There were 13 kids being baptized from our stake that same day and 5 of them were from our ward. (Three of them were triplets!)

We had everyone over afterwards to sing Happy Birthday and to eat cup cakes & ice cream. (although now that I think about it, I forgot to take out the ice cream!)


We had my parents over for dinner on Father's Day. I fixed some super yummy Chicken Parmigiana, per Josiah's request. Sadly he spent the day not feeling his best and ended up missing church that morning. (I think he was just trying to get out of saying the closing prayer in Sacrament meeting...which he was successful at until the following weekend when they called him again.)

For Trenton's birthday, we did an Optimus Prime themed party w/a few of his boy cousins.



(My pathetic attempt at decorating a birthday cake last minute)

He couldn't stop talking about his birthday for the full month leading up to it. Each day he would come to me and inform me of what day it was and he was constantly standing in front of the calendar counting the days down. I was grateful once it was finally passed.

Anyway, that is the important stuff that has happened around here in the last month. I have some other fun pics that I'll try and get posted hopefully sooner than later.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!