So Far in 2009 . . .

Hannah won her district spelling bee, so on to regionals it is.

Noah learned how to ride without training wheels.

Kendall and I had a great time at the Phoenix Children's Museum.

Joey celebrated his birthday (no he's not three, that's just how many candles I had!)

We celebrated by spending a weekend up north without the kiddos. It was great. Even standing in the snow it really wasn't that cold, but the scenery was beautiful.

I think we're off to a good start.

Do You Disney?

If you love Disneyland as much as I do, you need to take advantage of this deal! In 2009 Disney will be offering free admission on your birthday! I'm going to try and get a trip out of this next year for sure. If members of your family have birthdays on the same day you are really lucky! If you have an annual passport already you can get some other special offers instead. You do have to register for this in advance though. (You people know how much I love FREE). You have to register and then you can add your kids. Your spouse will have to do a separate registration. Now, I must go plot whether I can go in February, April, May, June, and August when each member of my family has a birthday! I love Disneyland.

Register here!

I Waited 30 Years . . .

. . . to finally have a sister. I have two older brothers, and always begged my mom for a little sister. When I was 11 my hope was renewed, but I got a baby brother instead.

I actually cried on the way to the hospital, until my cousin Jennie who was driving me to the hospital said, "It's okay, we can still put him in dresses." Of course once I saw him I loved him and didn't mind that he was a boy.

But since my brother graduated from high school this year, my parents weren't quite ready for an empty nest, so they decided to adopt.

Her name is Winnie, and we got to babysit her over Labor Day weekend so that my parents could go out of town. And after all, they deserved a break because having a newborn is hard work.
She's a Maltese/Yorkie mix (Morkie, according to Jessica). It was fun, and a lot of work, having her for the weekend. Noah and Kendall are a little scared of dogs in general so it was good for them. I can safely say that Kendall has overcome her fear of "Winnifer" (as she sometimes calls her), but the jury is still out on Noah. In his defense, Winnie can be very rowdy, barks a lot, and she does bite sometimes.

So I guess I have a little sister now, although I think that she bears a stronger resemblance to my three brothers.

Summer Vacation Part II

I'm sure this is way more detail than anyone really cares about, but I just don't want to forget!


We woke up on our first morning in Utah with lots of energy and feeling ready to explore. We had a busy day. We started out with a trip to the local grocery store to stock the little kitchen in our timeshare. Even though we were on vacation, it was so great having a kitchen and being able to prepare our own meals. It saved lots of money and kept us from getting so sick of eating out. We ate pretty much every breakfast, and more than half of our lunches and dinners at the resort. (I packed most of the food from home and then just needed to buy all the fresh/refrigerated items when we got there.)

After breakfast we explored the grounds of the resort. It was fairly small, but had a really nice pool. We spent a few hours out on the lawn playing baseball, catching little fish in the pond, and just enjoying the beautiful scenery.


















After lunch we headed into Ogden for a visit to the Eccles Dinosaur Park, where they had a small indoor museum and then a large outdoor trail with all types of dinosaurs.







We were all terrified to see the world's most dangerous creature. Thankfully it was in a cage.



We had dinner at the very yummy Cafe Rio and got a glimpse of the Ogden Temple and tabernacle (the temple looks pretty much identical to the Provo temple). We then drove back into Eden and decided to explore the Eden/Huntsville area and the Pineview Reservoir. It really is a beautiful area, with some quaint little houses and lots of gigantic mansions! Being really close to several ski resorts and also the water, it seems to be a popular vacation spot. We found the swimming/beach area of the reservoir and talked to the park ranger. He let us know that "if you want to come on Sunday, come early because church gets out at 11:00 and then it gets packed." We were quite entertained by that and decided that we would not come back on Sunday. Sadly we didn't make it back the rest of the week either. (I'd rather swim in a clean swimming pool than a reservoir anyway.) We found the home of President David O. McKay in Huntsville. We were too late for the tour but it was cool that we were able to see it. We also found a monastery that looked interesting but visiting hours were over there as well. (The daylight savings really threw us off. It stays light until almost 9 pm).

After all that it was time to end our day with a dip in the pool. We had a great day. More to come . . .

Summer Vacation Part I

We had the chance to take a trip to Utah a few weeks ago, and I'm already starting to forget the details so I better document it now. It all started out with my parents inviting us to go on vacation with them using their timeshare. No cost for hotel? Okay, we're up for it. So we helped them pick a place that was close enough to drive and would have some good places to visit, and Utah it was. (The number one question we were asked while there: Are you visiting family? We might be unusual in the fact that we really have no family living there. Joey maybe has one uncle there, but that's it.) So that was all decided back in January.

Of course you remember that in March my dad had open heart surgery, leading to many complications that required a total of 5 surgeries and much stress! Since he is just going back to work tomorrow for the first time since March, my parents really couldn't make the trip because it just wouldn't be wise considering that my dad had only been off his IV antibiotics for a few days and my mom just couldn't take any more time off work than she already had. But since it was too late to cancel the reservation, we drove up without them. (Sorry Mom and Dad, we know you really wanted to get away, and you deserve a vacation!)

I was absolutely dreading the drive, which ended up being a total of about 14 hours including our stops. I just wasn't sure how my kids would handle it. I tried to be as organized as possible so that they would stay entertained. I did a little shopping to have some "surprises" in the car, we had the DVD player ready to go, lots of snacks and CDs, each kid packed their own backpack of car activities, and I made an activity packet of things I printed from the internet, mostly common car games and age appropriate activities for each kid. Then I tried to structure the time and only let them watch a movie at certain times, give them a snack at certain times, work on their packet at certain times, etc. I wasn't sure how it would go, but they were so great on the whole ride. I couldn't believe it. (We have an unfortunate vacation history over the last few years, which I'll save for some future blog, so now I always anticipate the worst when it comes to vacation!)

As it was getting dark we finally arrived at our destination: Wolf Creek Village in Eden, UT. It is north of Salt Lake, you have to drive through Ogden and then through a canyon and past a reservoir, a really beautiful drive to get there. We checked in, unloaded the car and set out to find dinner before every place in this little town was closed for the night. Thankfully we found a pizza place willing to serve us when they were only 15 minutes from closing time. After that we settled in for the night and assigned beds to everyone. There was a huge loft upstairs with a king size bed and a bathroom, which of course was for the grown ups! Hannah and Kendall shared the downstairs bedroom, and Noah got the pull out couch. We would have to start the real adventure in the morning because we were definitely tired!

(Is anyone still reading this. Wow, I just wrote a lot didn't I?)

To hear about our 4th of July including some unforgettable photos, click here.

A Great Weekend . . .

Joey and Noah went on the Father and Son's Outing from Thursday-Saturday, (where apparently my foil dinners were the envy of the camp--who knew?!)

so imagine my surprise when the doorbell rang Friday morning and these

were delivered to my door. It actually made me tear up when I read the sweet card from Joey and the kids. You have to understand that getting flowers from my husband is a rare occasion. (He gives a great back rub, but is not great in the gift department. Most of the time, I'd rather have the back rub and pick out my own gifts anyway.) Apparently my Noah has been urging Daddy to get me flowers for weeks now. Haven't I trained him well?

Friday night we celebrated Hannah's birthday with a few friends by going to Dramagenics, a new family-friendly improv club. It is just starting up, so our group of 6 made up about half the audience, but it was a really fun time. The girls loved it, and some of them even got to go on stage and participate. They all got t-shirts too. It would be a fun date night or even night out with the family. (They also had buy one, get one free coupons in the Val-pak mailer a few weeks ago!). The birthday party turned into an unplanned slumber party where I went to bed and the girls stayed up way too late, which I suppose is the way slumber parties are supposed to be. We've found it's the perfect opportunity to do this when the boys are out of the house!

Sunday morning I got to sleep in while Joey made breakfast. Of course we ended up being late for church because of it, but it was worth it. He's rarely home before church because he has so many meetings, but it seems like whenever he is home we are late. I'm not blaming it on him, it's just that I get lazy and think I have more time since he's here. At church, my kids did the traditional Mother's Day singing with the Primary, and it was the last time all of my kids will be in Primary together. Makes me a little sad. My kids also showered me with fun homemade gifts, but I forgot to wear my "Super Mom: Hero of the Universe" button to church.

After church, we enjoyed a nice dinner with my family and Noah finally lost that tooth. Then he literally lost the tooth. Lucky for him, we have some good connections with the tooth fairy and she came anyway.

(Hi Randi, I know you're stalking my blog!)

Call Me . . .

if you want the latest on my dad. I don't feel like posting all the details, but I'll just say that he's back in the hospital, had another surgery yesterday, and will have to have another surgery in the coming days. On the bright side of things, I now feel as familiar with the hospital as I did when I was 13 and volunteered there for the summer.

Spelling bee on Saturday :)

When It Rains . . .

it really pours around here! So, I'll try to keep this brief and then move on to less depressing topics. Since my last post, I got really, really sick. I thought it was allergies at first, but then I ended up with 104 degree fever, coughing, sore throat, sinus infection . . . the list goes on and on. I decided to go to the doctor on Tuesday, and found out that I have an ear infection in both ears! I don't even know how the heck that happened, especially since my ears weren't even bothering me. So I've been in bed pretty much since Saturday night. I couldn't do anything fun with my kids on their Spring Break, and even though I've been up and around a little the past two days, I still don't feel back to my normal self yet. It's been awhile since I was that sick. Now I just have a lingering cough, which is still painful and annoying, but so much better than being in bed! I'm so grateful to be feeling better, though. My sweet husband stayed home from work on Monday just to help take care of me and the kids, and my dear friend Tonya helped me out so much by watching my kids twice and even bringing me groceries. She's a saint!

I haven't been able to see my dad or help out over there at all since he's been home from the hospital, and he now has an infection in his incision. We are hoping that antibiotics will treat it because if not they will have to do more surgery. Yuck. We don't want that. I'm still staying away until I'm confident that I'm better.

Also, my grandma (my mom's mom) is most likely having heart surgery next week to replace her aortic valve. She's in Kentucky, so it will be hard to be so far away and not get to see her before the surgery. Love you, Grandma!

In better news,

my handsome little brother is killing the ball and having a phenomenal senior season. I'm hoping to catch more of his games in the next few weeks. I've never known a kid who loves to play ball as much as he does. Doesn't my cousin take great photos? Here's her website: http://flickr.com/photos/paperdollimages


And for all those still wondering about Coupon Sense, visit www.couponsense.com. I can tell you more about it, but it's absolutely amazing and I can't believe I've been missing out all this time. Seriously, why didn't one of you tell me about it before? I consider it my new part-time job--getting free stuff. I love it, because it satisfies my shopping addiction and gives me great deals at the same time. The grand total for all that stuff: about $17. (Think of it this way: the razor and vitamins together would have cost $17 full price). I got a lot of it free or even MADE MONEY, and that was just my first week. I have been able to get so much more free stuff since then. I don't think I'll ever pay for shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, or soap again. Let me know if you are interested, I can have a little party and have my instructor come and tell you all about it. (And no, Mel, I haven't taken any more pictures of my groceries. I was tempted to take a picture of the 14 boxes of cereal I got for $4, but I resisted.)

Okay, that was long. Thanks for reading to the end.

The Latest

My dad is doing really well. He ended up having a quadruple bypass, but everything went as expected. Within an hour after surgery he was awake and cracking us up trying to do some kind of sign language to tell us what he wanted. Within a few hours, he was able to get the breathing tube out and he hasn't stopped talking since. He is, of course, entertaining all the hospital personnel and the nurses were threatening to cut off the visitors yesterday because he had so many people going in and out. We're hoping to get him out of ICU and into a regular room today.

Personally, I want to thank all of my friends who offered help, phone calls, etc. My cell phone battery was almost dead by Tuesday night because I had so many phone calls checking on my family, offering meals and babysitting and moral support. Every time I would be on a call, my call waiting would beep, and then I'd get a text message. I could hardly keep up with it all! It is nice to be reminded of how much you're loved.

On a lighter note, I have a new obsession. I've always been a shopping addict, but these days I'm doing things a little bit differently. I'm so excited about it. Can you guess how much I paid for all of this?

Let me give you an idea of what is there: 12 boxes of Fruit Roll-ups, 8 boxes of Nature Valley Peanut bars, 6 bottles of Herbal Essences shampoo (okay, there are seven in the picture, but I accidentally put one in that shouldn't be there), 6 pounds of chicken drumsticks, 2 big bags of M & Ms, 2 boxes of Mama Bella garlic bread, a 24-pack of water, Garnier moisturizer, Yes to Carrots body butter, a tube of Colgate, 12 bars of Zest soap, 4 bars of Ivory soap, 4 bars of Safeguard soap, and a Venus Embrace razor.

Come on, take a guess in the comments section. I'll post the answer once a few people have guessed.

Just a quick post . . .

So if you're not busy on Tuesday, say an extra prayer for my family. My dad is having open heart surgery tomorrow to bypass some blocked arteries. It's a little scary for us all, but we have faith in the doctors and are praying that all will go well. This is my favorite picture of my dad, I took it at Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, when we went there a few years ago as a family. I just threw this page together, I'll have to go back and perfect it later. The hardest part for my dad so far is missing Andrew's baseball games. He missed the first game tonight since Andrew's freshman year, but Andrew knocked one out of the park for him. Gotta go to bed, I'm exhausted from being at the hospital all day, and tomorrow will be even more exhausting. More posts soon.