Happy New Year???

This year for New Year's Eve we have quarantined ourselves.
That's right.
We came home from Christmas with stomach flu.
I will spare all the details and say only this...
everyone's been sick except for me and I assume that I will be getting it soon.
What a great thing to look forward to.



All of the kids are feeling mostly better now.
Loren dragged himself to work
even though it was quite obvious that he wasn't feeling well.
Today I feel "weird".
Not sure if I am starting to come down with it or if it is lack of sleep or just the fact that I have been surrounded by sick people.



Yesterday I scrubbed lots of bathrooms and will have to do it again today.
YEAH!
I also get to clean my couch...a chore that I hate.

Yesterday was also Loren's birthday.
We'll be celebrating it when everyone is well again.
I feel bad that he didn't even get a cake.
Of course he wouldn't have been able to eat it.



Hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve.
We won't be staying up till midnight I'm sure,
but hopefully we'll be well enough to play some games together or something like that.

Here's to 2010!

Christmas busyness

No matter how hard I try, December always turns into a busy month. This one more so than others. We did manage to squeeze in a few things that the kids enjoyed.

We went to see the Christmas lights at the temple. The were beautiful as always, it was quite crowded though. An interesting story to liven up the evening: we lost Jenna as we were leaving the visitor's center. We had gone in to look at the display of nativity scenes from around the world. As we were leaving, the concert they were holding outside was just ending and it was really busy around the exit doors. There were people everywhere and somehow Jenna got separated from us in the crowd. It was the scariest moment of my life as we got out of the crowd and I looked around and realized Jenna wasn't with us. This is not like losing your child in a store! Loren and I left Melia and Taylor with the stroller on the edge of a sidewalk and told them not to move. Loren kept Devin with him while we spilt up to look for her. He went inside and started talking to the people at the front desk of the visitor's center and I started scanning the crowd with a feeling absolute panic. There were soooo many people. How would we ever find her? Finally I spotted her with a very nice woman who was trying to help her. A happy ending to a scary moment.

So here is my attempt at a group shot with all the kids. As you can see, Devin is uninterested and planning his escape.

Loren and I even managed to get a picture together taken by our personal photographer Melia.

The girls each wanted a picture by the very colorful trees.

And Devin would only consent to having his picture taken when he was standing next to these purple lights. He kept pointing at them while saying "purple."

We also got to attend the musical perfomance at the girl's school. They each sang songs with their classes and did great jobs. I was very crowded so I wasn't able to get a good picture of Melia, but that is her in the middle of the shot in the white shirt.

I was able to fight my way through the crowd to get shots of Jenna and Taylor. Somehow I'm sure Melia will interpret this fact into undying belief that I like her less that the other two.

This year...

I was once a Christmas perfectionist. I can admit that about myself...

This year has cured me of my perfectionist tendencies (somewhat).

This year I had realtively little time to devote to decorating...

school, children and husband were demanding most of what I had

(the house has gotten little of my attention these days).

In years past I would spend a day or two pulling out favorite decorations

and placing them here and there until I liked the way it looked.

This year I took one afternoon (roughly 3 hours) on the Sunday after Thanksgiving

and said to myself,"whatever gets done while Devin is napping is all that is going to get done

this year."

That was hard for me.

I love Christmas.

I love the decorations

the music,

baking treats,
all of it.

I took those 3 hours and put out the things

I thought the kids would like most.

And while the decorating is much more simple

this year,

I don't think the kids have noticed.

And it made it possible for me to not feel so stressed.

That's a good thing, right?

The tree is quite unique this year...
we do have a fake tree.

We bought it when Jenna was a baby.

The pre lit kind.

I was so excited to not have to string the lights.

Part of being a tree perfectionist is that the lights

have to be just right.

The prelit tree insured that they were just right without me

having to do much work to get them that way.

As the years have gone by less and less of the lights on

the pre lit tree

have worked.

This year when we plugged it all in,

only half a strand lit up.

This led us to make an interesting decision:

We took all of the lights off the prelit tree.

Weird huh?

Then lacking the time to make sure the lights were just right,

I allowed Loren to throw on a couple of strands of colored lights

(I prefer white...but we didn't have any)

That was hard for me.

They definitly were not just right.

I also lacked the time to spread all of the branches

and make sure there were no "holes"

It bothers me a little...

if I take the time to really look, there are holes all over the place.

Devin is quite distructive this year.

That is why there are very few decorations on the bottom third of the tree.
The other two thirds is overly crowded with all of the treasured ornaments
that we don't want broken.

Again, I turn a blind eye and don't let it bother me.

So what if each ornament isn't perfectly spaced

from the others.

Who really cares, Right?

NOT ME...

at least not as much as I thought I would.

In realtily, our tree is a very good reflection of

our family (busy with a destructive almost 2 year old)

this year.

The great catch up game!

this is what I do mostly on my blog.

I have good intentions, but they generally fall by the way side

as my life gets busier and busier.

So, in the hustle and bustle of getting school finished for the semester

this is what got missed:

Taylor's eighth birthday party.

I have already posted separate posts for her birthday and baptism

(they were to special and important of days to lump in with all that is smooshed into a catch up post)

But I neglected to include her birthday party

in which we went to Peter Piper Pizza

with about 8 friends

and had a great time.
They played games,

ate pizza and cupcakes

opened presents

and

waited in line for an eternity to select their prizes.

Sounds like fun to me!

I got the bonus of not having to clean my house after a birthday party!!!

Yeah for me!

Taylor with her favorite cousin Logan and best friend Syndey

Another thing that got missed:

conclusion of the soccer season...

the kids had SO much fun playing soccer this past season.

It was stressful for me because

they were all on different teams

and they all had practice on different nights.

Always right at dinner time too.

I think we kept Taco Bell and Little Ceasar's

in business!

It was a very busy 6 weeks.

Mom was so glad when it ended...

the girls loved it so much; they could've done it longer.

It was rainy and cold on the last day so not

too many good pictures were taken.

I especially wanted to get one of all three of them

with their trophies.

Oh well!

Here are the few pictures we did manage to get:

Taylor with her good friend and teammate Brynlli

Jenna gettin her trophy from her coach

Taylor getting her trophy from her coach

Melia with her whole team

Taylor playing Goalie (a position that gave her a reason to goof off more than anything)

Action shots of Melia and Jenna

Jenna with our wonderful friend Bruce Chancellor and friend Sierra

Taylor's big day

On November 28 our sweet second daughter was baptised.

She had awaited this day with much excitement.

There is so much to look forward to when you have just turned eight...

your baptism day, time with every member of your family.
A feeling of being completely loved, like you're wrapped in a big warm blanket.

I'm sure that's what Heaven feels like.


We are so proud of Taylor...

she is a wonderful daugher,

she is always willing to help when asked,

she is a peacemaker in our home,

we have seen her make good decisions and

we know that she will continue to strive to make go choices.

She is a blessing to our family

and we as her parent's are so thankful

that our Father in Heaven sent her to us.

Most of the family made it to be with Taylor on her special day.

We thank them for taking the time to travel down here.

Taylor really was glad to see everyone.

Here she is with her grandparents:

She looked lovely in her white dress....

We felt the spirit strongly that day.

I hope Taylor felt it too.

It was a very special day.

Over

Somehow I survived.

How I truely don't know

and at this moment I am so tired

I want nothing more than to crawl

in my comfy warm bed and sleep for

DAYS

I spent countless hours studying

and my wonderful husband spent

alot of those hours

watching the kids, making the meals

and picking up the house.

For that I am so thankful...

I couldn't have done it without him.

I has been a long hard week

and

I already know that the outcome is

not quite what I wanted.

It could have been worse though

and I am know I did the

best I could.

I also know that I

took on a little too much

this time.

I've learned

my lesson....

It won't happen again.

(Promise!)

At least

Now I get to enjoy

my favorite time of year.

I want to do some fun things with

the kids

and

maybe

make up

for a little bit of

the "not fun mom"

that I have been lately.

I AM SO

GLAD

IT'S OVER!!!

Can't think of a title for this post...

I have many things to blog about
and I WILL get around to it!
I promise.

Just as soon as I get through what is
being referred to as HELL WEEK by the adults in this house
(Unfortunately it will have lasted about 2 weeks by the time it is over,
but who's really counting right?
Just me I think.)

As soon as I get through my 2 finals I will blog about the following things:
Taylor's baptism and birthday party,
Thanksgiving,
The end of the soccer season,
and anything else that happens between now and then.

In the mean time I am praying for 4 things right now:
#1 That I won't loose my sanity while studying over the next several days
#2 That somehow my brain will be able to remember all of that crap I an trying to cram into it.
#3 That somehow I will actually get the grades I really do need in these classes
#4 That this here lap top (that has been making a worrisome noise for the past few days) will make it too the end of next week...I need it in order to study and I can't afford to replace it right now.

Wish me luck on my finals!
I will be a much nicer and happier person on December 12th.

If you need to call me about the possibility of me doing anything extra, please don't!
I don't have the time right now, and Loren doesn't want to hear me complain any more.

8 is great

Today is Taylor's eighth birthday...

She had a big party with friends over the weekend (check back for pictures)so today was pretty simple.

*She requested pancakes for breakfast.

*She got a couple of gifts from us (her own set of scriptures and a sparkly necklace and earrings to wear to her baptism in 2 weeks).

*I took birthday treats to her class. Sugar cookies with pink frosting (compliments of Wal-Mart and her favorite treat in the world) and juice boxes. Her class all thought Devin was especially cute (thank goodness he behaved himself).

*Dinner at Mexican Grill-our favorite local place to eat.

*Left over cookies with a left over #8 candle stuck in one for the birthday cake.

I hope she felt especially special on this very special birthday.

I always feel a little sentimental when one of the kids has a birthday. I can hardly believe that my second baby is 8 years old. She is such a sweet and special daughter and I can only pray that I am doing what is right when it comes to raising her.

I still remember the night she was born. As we were driving to the hospital I was thinking in my mind "I don't want to have this baby!" Melia had been such a difficult baby and I was terrified that Taylor would be the same. Heavenly Father blessed me in so many ways with this second daughter. She was easy almost from the moment they layed her in my arms. She was the tiniest little thing I had ever seem. She weighted only 5 pounds 14 ounces and she was absolutely precious. She fit so perfectly into our family...she rarely cried and slept like a dream. To me she was absolute heaven.

How have eight years come and gone so fast?

I am so proud of the person she is becoming. She is helpful and kind, considerate of others, outgoing and ambitious. She is bright and fun to be around. She always tried to do her best and be the best person she can be. No parents could ask for more.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR-

LOVE MOM

A little catching up...

Here is my usual catching up post. With the kids being sick for most of October and having a huge amount of homework I have gotten a little behind. We'll start with the most recent and work our way back...

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Halloween!!!

This Halloween we had out traditional Halloween party at Grandma Lunt's house with all of the Lunt cousins...

This year in our family we had...

One devil...

One cheerleader...
One very cute witch...

One temper tantrum from One grouchy lion that refused to put on most of his costume and definately didn't cooperated during the picture taking...

Lots of cousins (I don't think this is all of them...)


a pinata

a cakewalk and some crafts

eating apples off of strings

and many other fun games (fishing, a bucket toss, and bingo)

Lots of fun!

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Fall break/Soccer

Fall break was actually pretty uneventful. The kids were bored alot and I had to do some homework...blah blah blah. Loren did take the last 2 days off to help entertain the kids so that I could study for the midterm tests I had the next week. We managed to go to the park. The intent of the whole outing was to teach Jenna to ride her bike without training wheels...that was rather unsuccessful to say the least.

So mostly the kids played on the toys

And Loren and the kids played in the sprinklers and got really wet.

Fall break was also the beginning of the soccer season. They had their first practices throughout the week and their first game on Saturday. They all did really well and have LOVED playing!

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Jenna's first lost tooth!!!

Jenna finally lost her first tooth during fall break! She was so excited...she has been waiting to loose a tooth ever since her cousin Brylee lost one. She wiggled that tooth to death!

Her she is showing off the absolutely adorable hole in her smile and holding her special "tooth fairy box". (she has since lost the tooth next to this one and it is so cute when she says words like that and they because her tongue pokes through the space in her teeth.)