Sew What!!!!!

I have a lot of sewing still to do for the girls for the Trek.

I bought a sewing machine back when I was in high school (a million years ago...). My mom went in half on it with me. It was the first Electronic touch button machine that singer put out. If my memory serves me right, it was about $1,000.00. That was a ton of $ for a teenager!!! It has been through a lot. Not that I sew a ton, but over the years it has seen me through a lot of different projects. Comforters for my bed in college, a baby quilt and crib set for my nephew T (he got married last year), Blessing dresses, and blankets for my babies. Sun dresses and t-shirt dresses as they grew, and many, many, many baby gifts: burp rags, blankets, bibs, onsies with skirts, etc.

My machine has had it's difficulties over the years, trying to get the screw that holds the needle in place drilled out in a foreign country (the packers didn't pad it and it was upside down in the bottom of a large box, and the screw broke off), tension difficulties, etc. Bill took it in the past two years and got it adjusted, and cleaned up. I have had to super-glue the thread holder post back on as that snapped off in some move. Well, as I began sewing recently, I noticed that the dial to adjust the tension was completely broken, so I was sewing along alright, and then after the late night sewing last week the tension got messed up. I have another small little machine my mother in law bought me for a gift one year when my singer was on the fritz. It has some problem and I haven't used it in years. I tried to sew yesterday while I was home from church with Sariah and Liam, and I couldn't get my singer working right, nor could I get the other machine to do anything! I suppose I whould take it to get adjusted some time. It's a nice basic machine, it jsut needs a little TLC right now. Last night I was thinking... who could I call to borrow a machine from??? I actually called a friend in our neighborhood, D, and she was more than glad to help me out, and even show me how to use her serger! We planned to get together Tuesday morning.

This morning I woke up and Bill said I should get up and get ready so we could go out and buy me a new sewing machine! WoW!!! what a huge surprise!

So, we ended up looking at Hancock fabric store. I couldn't remember if they had machines in there or not, I've never looked before. When we arrived I realized it's been a while since I went in there. Appearantly they had a re-model last fall, and they have a sewing machine center in there now. They have bernina's, and they were having a promotional sale for Memorial Day. You got a card, and scratched it off and got anywhere from 20% - 40% off, of certain machines... Our card got us 25% off, and after looking at the various machines, and talking it over, we had thought I could either get a lesser machine and in a few years need another one (perhaps, give the one to whichever girl may want a machine some day to take to college with them or when they get married...), and then I'd get a new one. I looked at different features on different machines, and even though I probably don't sew enough to make the fancier one a necessity, it has severa features that I will definitely get a lot of use out of...

So, I am the proud new owner of a Bernin bernette sewing machine! Woowhoo!!! now I have a lot of sewing to do to make it worth it! ;-) Of course I have to read the manual to 'learn' how to use it first!! I am sure (now that amanda figured out HOW to thread the bobbin) that I can at least do the basic straght stitch, and a zig zag or something pretty simple to get me through the Trek clothing!!!

This afternoon, we went to a friend's Retirement party, Liam fell asleep in the car on the way over there, so Amanda held him for a bit when we first got there, and then laid him down on a quilt,to sleep. Bill tented him to keep the sun from burning him.

Liam woke up and Sariah took him on the waterslide. it was cold and he didn't like the water spraying in his face. Here he is sitting on Amanda's lap, in a towel, with a water drip hanging off his ear.

We all had a very good time, even though, a storm blew up, and some plates of food and glass candle holders went flying! We had to clean off our friend M's back, since he happened to be the bullseye for the flying salsa plate hit. ;-{, and then we vacuumed up the remaining (we hope) glass out of the grass (so that none of the kids who were running around in bathing suits, and bare feet because of the waterslide, would cut up their feet). Then, after shutting down the water slide, and clearing everyone out from under the big tented area, they pulled the tent down in a hurry, so it wouldn't blow away (and tear it to shreds) and all the people crowded into the house. everyone was in good spirits, and having a good time and after a while - with a nice heavy downpour, the kids were back out in the waterslide and the retiree J even put on his swim trunks and took a couple of trips down the waterslide. The kids thought that was awesome!

Then tonight after we got home bill and I ran out to Lowe's and Home Depot to check out the Mem. day sales. We need to do something to our bathroom floor, it has carpeting, and the shower splashes and leaks out under the shower door which sits up a bit, and the carpet even with the floor rug I have down get wet. It has been so humid lately and we try to keep all doors in the house shut and child locked to try to keep Liam out, the room doesn't get a lot of air circulation, and is starting to smell musty. We want to tile, and since Bill tiled the small bathroom downstairs last year, somewhat as a learning experiecne to eventually move on to other area's of the house, such as our master bathroom.

Well, the sad news is the sale for Mem. Day, ended today instead of starting today like Bill thought, so we will not be able to tile for a while yet. We had too much deciding to do before we could buy anything like that. Perhaps they'll have another good sale around the 4th of July, if not for labor day, when they do the 10% off for military. It will give us time to really plan and decide what we want to do. I think we will re-do the shower, and make it bigger.

Sariah was a super big help today. Thank you. She kept Liam all the time we were shopping today. Thank you, we could have never had the presence of mind to deal with buying a sewing machine or looking at tile, with Liam along for the ride!

End of School, Water Fun and Concerts!

School is out, and I now have 2 going to High School, and one headed to Middle School and only 2 in the elementary school next year. Everyone did pretty well, Rebekah only had to take one final exam, after having taken the AP exams for two classes. Sariah had an awards ceremony and got a certificate for being on all 'A' honor roll all year. Then she was completely shocked when each teacher gave out two special awards for the best in their class at either the subject or for being the most improved, or something else. She sat and watched as the other names were called out went up, and then, her homeroom teacher called her name and she got a citizenship award! A trophy with her name on it. I was proud of her! Bill commented that it was certainly a good group of kids up there on the stage, and so many of her friends, and what caliber of friends she has.

Rebekah and Amanda auditioned for the marching Band. Amanda's French horn has needed to go in to get fixed for a while, so she hasn't played it in a long time! Rebekah was able to borrow one from the high school for her to practice on in the afternoon, before auditions.

We went to the church for many hours Thursday night, to sew some more of the trek clothes. It takes sooooo long, to trace the patterns, then get the fabric cut out and start sewing... Bekah and Amanda came along about 10 p.m. we were at the church until 2 am! Bill had gone earlier to help a family move and ended up hurting his back, which I didn't know about, so he was trying to take care of Liam and couldn't even lift him up. He said Liam cried for about 2 hours at some point. Sorry to both of them, but it sure was helpful to not have to have Liam running around getting into things while I was trying to sew!

Friday Dad went to our Stake camp again (I think this is about 4 weeks in a row), to work on some things to get it ready for all the Girls camps this summers task for the day was to move 2 Refrigerators from the main pavilion down to each pavillion at each of the camp sights. His back was really hurting! He was about in tears a couple of times durring the night and that was with medication. I was really worried about him, hurting himself worse. He was lmping around and coldn't even stand up straight before he left. He took a couple of the young men from church with him to help do the work. When he left the house to go pick them up, I had Reekah call one of them to tell him to keep an eye on Bill! and not to let him LIFT anything! They did a great job, and lots of hard work, and Bill literally supervised! they didn't let him lift a thing! (thanks J! and C and T).

I spent the day with Rebekah who I had promised her a shopping trip for some things, and while we were out, we found something cute for each girl. Hannah is a self proclained tomboy, and has been wearing big baggy boys football type shirts. We found her a cute 'football' type Jersey, that is green (her current favorite color), and it is a bit girly (closer cut, not so boxy). and she loves it! yay! The kids played in the water on the slip and slide at home.

Saturday Bill got up and took Hannah and Sariah with him out to Camp Hulaco. His back still hurt, but not as bad as the day before. The men from church went and did a lot of work, they also finished off building the dock at the lake. Sariah did some lawn mowing, and weed whacking, and later they all swam in the lake. Sariah has been having alergy problems, and something up t the camp while she was cutting down all those grasses and weeds, about did her in!!! Poor thing came home with her eyes all swollen and itchy and red!

Afer they left in the morning, I did some weeding in my garden. Things are growing, but the grass that keeps creeping in...! ugh! While I was in the garden, I heard Liam coming out to see me. He had a wet diaper and decided to take it off and bring it to mommy... wasn't that thoughtful??? so there I was muddy hands, and now I had Nakey baby running around in my garden as well! Then he saw the slip and slide and wanted to play on it and turned on the water.

What a silly boy! Luckily it was still fairly early in the day and I didn't have to worry about him getting a sun burn in sensative places!!! (ouchie!)

Then a bit after noon Rebekah and Amanda and their friend M left for Post. They sat in the HOT sun for hours and hours so that they would be RIGHT in front of the GATE to get in at the MWR concert on Post. They were there by 1:15, and the gate didn't open to get in to the concert until 6! We got there around 5:15 and by the time we got in, M and Rebekah had staked our claim on the ground for the concert.

This was the 2nd time we have gone to theconcert on post. Last time it was Carrie Underwood, and Liam was a newborn. This time It was Kelly Pickler, and we were pleasantly surprised that she could really sing! After Kelly was Ronny Atkins, then was the main event with Taylor Swift. We all had a great time. Sariah was so miserable because of her eyes, she just laid down and covered her head and went to sleep. Amazingly Bill was feeling better! He was able to do some work at the camp durring the day, and was able to have kids sit on his shoulders to be able to see better at some parts of the concert! Marissa eventually fell asleep as well (after she got back up to sing and dance with the first couple of taylor swift songs). And finally, Liam fell asleep, almost at the end of the concert! We just put our chairs all around our blanket so no-one would trample on the kids as the crowd swarmed to leave the concert grounds. We figured we weren't in a hurry, since then we'd just be stuck in traffic anyway! As everyone left, you could see the trash left all over on the ground. Rebekah, Amanda and M. were so disgusted at the people! When I told them that most likely it would be soldiers having to clean up the trash all over the field, they felt so bad! And on Memorial day weekend when it should be a day off and celebrating them for all that they do and give for our freedoms!

I have a bunch of pictures on my phone, but don't know how to access it at the moment.

I was so proud of the girls. They went and got a trash bag and can and started picking up the trash around us. Then the circle widened, and they had to get more and more bags for more and more trash. It was amazing how much work our girls did! They ran around pretty happily, picking up trash! A few people saw our girls (and Bill ) picking up trash, and picked up a little bit here and there. Eventually our little group (other than the sleepy heads, who were out cold!) , in aobut an hour, filled up 8 HUGE bags of garbage and cleaned nearly 3/4 of one whole side of the Concert area. Talk about good citizens!

At the end of it all, Bill had taken all of our chairs, and Hannah to go get the van and see how close they could park so we wouldn't have to go quite so far, especially with sleepy kids! When they pulled up to the parking lot near the back gate, they saw a croud by the fence, and realized that Taylor Swift was signing autographs. Bill left Hannah in line with paper and came to get us. I took Liam (who was still asleep in the sling) and went to stand with Hannah in line. He went and woke up Marissa and Sariah to come and get autographs. I couldn't get any pic's, since I'd taken pic's with my phone of the kids at the concert (and Camera's aren't supposed to be allowed, so we left it home), but she did sign a couple of concert tickets for the kids, and she signed the notebook that Hannah had. It was so cute, she was very sweet! She leaned down to Hannah and said, let me see your eyes, Oh my, you have beautiful eyes! and then signed I 'heart' Hannah, you are gorgeous! - Taylor Swift. So sweet!

We didn't get home until after 1 a.m. this morning.

Then this morning poor Sariah woke up with her eyes still messed up and her one eye was swollen shut! So seh stayed home from Church, and Liam had a yucky cough and gross stuff coming out of his nose this morning, and I didn't think that that they'd want him at nursery today, so we stayed home also.

Two, Nine, two, Nine, Ready GO!!!!!

I hear this a lot lately. Liam likes to count, and then jump (off of things). Lately he has begun to count then run! Or count and throw a ball or some other item! He only knows two numbers, but the numbers change occasionally, or else we can't exactly tell from the pronunciation, whether he's saying Two or Three...

It is pretty cute though. As amanda was getting ready for the Powder Puff football game, she did quite a bit of practicing throwing and cathing the football. Well, Liam who LOVES any sort of ball (and all things ROUND - it MUST be a BALL!), really enjoyed this! Now he seems to be throwing the ball(s) around even more than usual - I can't manage to get a picture of him since by the time the camera focuses, he has already thrown the ball! One of these days we will have to teach him that age old house rule... No Throwing balls in the house! For now, it is jsut fun to watch him learn different things and he is darn cute! And I love the new addition of "Ready Go!"

Powder Puff...

Amanda played on the Freshman Powder Puff football team last week. They practiced after school all week and then they played on friday. We got the little girls out of school to come watch. They saw the concession stand and of course were dying of hunger, so dad bought them nachos. They got cold as it was quite a blustery day, and was still a bit wet from last night's rain storm. I'm sure glad Bill called me before I left the house to bring blankets! Sariah layed down and covered her head for a while - as she said, she has NO FAT on her to keep her skinny bones warm at all! Liam, just wanted to run up and down the bleechers... and of course we were preventing him from doing that, so...he cried. but we still had fun.

Rebekah wanted to but she'd already missed several afternoons of school last week, for not feeling well and an orthodontist apointment, so I didn't think she should miss more school going into finals this week. (only 3 1/2 days left)

Amand had fun, and they WON! (even though the 8th graders cheated some by tying thier flags on! and some bad calls or lack thereof for holding.) At half time they had a group of 'cheerleader/dancers' -8th grade boys. One was a friends younger brother, they were so funny! Very cute!

Then on Sat. after pulling bushes and planting flowers, Amanda made me take her to get a hair cut! she has been asking, and I've been busy, so we ran to one of those quicky hair cut places, and it looks really cute! Of course i was in a hurry to get out the door to church so I forgot to take any pictures of her new cute haircut! I tried to take some after church, but they didnt' turn out real well, and she was in her jammies, not all dressed up cute anymore. She needed to domethign to her hair if you look at this picture. ;-) (o.k. so it was late in the evening, and she'd just finished adding her name and number onto the back of the shirt. her hair was definitely not a priorty at that moment!) ;-)

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary...

I am not someone that anyone would describe as having a green thumb! I see people who enjoy working on their garden or their flowerbed's and they look fabulous! Each year as spring starts and the flowers begin to pop up from the ground and dot the earth everwhere I turn, I look at my yard and it is boring, boring, boring. The people who lived here before had shrubs, green shrubs... Big shrubs, little shrubs, all shrubs. I wanted some COLOR!!!!! So I began to pull some of the shrubs! I have had a little help, and of course the one's tht have previously died were a lot easier to pull out than the ones with strong root systems. But now we've transplanted a few things, and planted some others. I still have LOTS more to do, but I am pretty happy with what I've done so far. When it all starts growing well, and my yard is awash with Color!!!!

I made these step stones last Oct. with the kids (I only got three of them done, since the three big girls went somewhere that day... we'll have to get to them one day soon). So I decided to put them into my new flower gardens.

While Amanda and I were working, Liam got himself a can of Sgetio's (spageti-o's) from the garage shelves.l. I guess he got hungry.

My Garden is growing! Yippee! I'm so excited! I planted some stuff from starter plants, tomatoes, peppers, squash; but I planted several other things from seeds, and they are growing! yay! I have all these little green sprouts poking up! I can't wait to see what all really grows, and what kind of a harvest we have.

Mothers Day

My day started out with Marissa coming in with her stack of cards and pictures she'd drawn and made for the past couple of weeks. Sweet! then I began to smell yummy breakfast, and she returned with a menu of food by 'Sheft Bill', and they brought me breakfast in bed. I got a beautiful Statue of a Mother and children from Bill. he had a hard time bringing it back through airport security wince he wanted to hand carry it. It happened to be the same trip he bought the Christus for me and he had both of them to hand carry, along with his laptop computer...

Rebekah bought me this very funny book (that Amanda pointed out to her a little bit ago at the store) - If These BOOBS Could Talk: A Little Humor to Pump Up the Breastfeeding Mom
http://www.amazon.com/These-Boobs-Could-Talk-Breastfeeding/dp/0740771205/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210777663&sr=8-1
I can tell you years ago that I would have NEVER imagined that I'd get somethign like this for a gift and for Mothers Day, and from my kids! I think it is very sweet that knowing and apreciating the work I do with pregnant, birthign and breastfeeding mom's they would get something like this for me.

I got to go to Church with my hubby ;-) I got to sit with my three young women durring combined R.S. and Y.W. meeting at church. Then afterward, we had packed a picnic type lunch/dinner, and went off Franklin, TN for a Musical Fireside by Jason Deere and band. He has put out two Album's - Joseph: A Nashville Tribute to the Prophet, and Trek: A Nashville Tribute to the Pioneers. It was really wonderful. He talked about how he read hundreds of actual Pioneer Journals as inspiration to pay tribute to those that too that incredible Journey. He uses some of the journal entries as background intro to some of the songs, and some of the lines in the songs are direclty from some entries. It is very touching. It was interesting to be 'rocking out' on a Sunday at a Chapel however... ;-)
http://www.ldsaudio.com/shop/music.aspx?type=album&id=330
You can listen to some of the songs at this web site -
http://www.ldsaudio.com/shop/music.aspx?type=album&id=564

We met a Sister Missionary there. Sister Ar__ll. We chatted with her, and I told her I'd tease her brother about not writing to her while she has been out for 16 months already... so... I'll have to get ahold of E and K A, who live just a few miles south of me... and are expecting a new baby in Dec. (I spilled that news, hope it wasn't a secret! ;-) she said she'd just talked to her mom that day for Mothers day and she hadn't said anything about it!

Rebekah stayed home and kept Liam for us, and though ti was a long night for her, I (we) really appreciated ehr willingness to help out, since it would have been a lot more stressful getting up and down with him and I'm sure taking him out in the hallway for much of it. It was hard enough keeping up with the two/three younger one's we had with us, who got awfully tired after a long day and sitting still in church chairs, for two hours (that lasted into bed time), then the drive back home... Let's just be honest. I'm glad Liam wasn't with us, though I wished Rebekah could have been.

Listening to the stories of the pioneers made me want to 'get to know' my ancestors better, and to introduce them more fully to my children. I haven't even done a very good job at sharing my memories and stories of my own parents to my children so that they might get to know them, as they never had the opportunity to know either of them, since my parents both passed away before I was married or had children.
I came up with an idea for Y.W. projects for my girls if they'd like to do this. We have old mimeographed copies of some of the family histories of several of my ancestors, and I thought if they'[d like to take the time to type them into the computer and make a more usuable (in today's technological world) copy of it, and then we'd be able to share it better as a family, and to send to our other relatives as well. I thought this might be a way for them to get to know their ancestors as people with real lives. Bringing the Spirit of Elijah to our family.

So, I had a wonderful Mothers Day, though it certainly wasn't conventional for what I would have planned or thought it would be like.
Thank you family.

Birth Story

When I found out I was pregnant with you, daddy was out of town. When he returned I had made a poster that said 'WELCOME HOME DADDY3!'. I wrote the 3 (to the third power really small). When he got home he saw the poster, but didn't notice the '3'. I had him go back downstairs and look at it again. When he realized, he came upstiars and said, "is that what I think it means?" He was very happy! We all were. We'd known you were supposed to come to our family - we just had to wait for your time to come.

I was not very happy with my last birth experience, and so the more I read and planned I knew I wanted somethign different this time. I was very unhappy with the Hospital and most of the hosp. staff (in the O.B. department) at Ft. Irwin at that time! I read a lot of books and I knew that I wanted to have the most Natural childbirth possible. I would have loved to have a Midwife to help deliver at a birthing center or at home. That was not allowed at that post, (the Head OB Dr. said, "It would set a bad pressident to allow someone to go off post to deliver with a midwife." so it just was not possible. I really wanted to have a special experience with this childbirth, but I didn't feel like that was possible at that hospital.

The entire pregnancy was a highly stressful time. I worried about the delivery I knew what I wanted. Bill was very nervous and I hadded a lot of stress to his life. He was in Company Command and it was very stressful. He had a work-a-holic boss. By the last few months of pregnancy, after many discussions... he was pretty much resigned to the fact that I would probably do what I wanted to do. I'd had 'fights' with several Dr's, and the patient representative at the hospital. I had been called at home and 'harrassed' by them. I talked with several friends, and some had offered to help me out.

I continued to read books on Home Birth and Midwifery. I truely felt that our Heavenly Father had a plan and it didnt' require a Dr and a Hospital to bring this sweet young spirit into the world. I had my sweet wonderful husband give me a priesthood blessing that we would know the choice to make and IF we needed to go to the hospital. I was prepared as best I could.

about a week before Sariah was born, I started doing a lot of walking - and yard work and housework. On May 8h we took a long walk to our friends house and spent the afternoon there. I was tired and so Bill came and picked us up on his way home from work. Just after we got home, around 7 p.m. I thought m water broke. We started to call people, since with both previous pregnancies, the contractions started within abt. 30 minutes of my water breaking. However both of those times it was pretty much a big gush of fluids, and this time it was more of a trickle if it really was rupture of membranes. Charli, Kelly, Cami and Sandi all came over.

Charli, Cami and I wnet on a couple of walks around the neighborhood to see if we could get any contractions to get started. We pulled the wagon with the girls in it - Charli or Cami pulled it along... No luck. We went back home, made oatmeal cookies, and sat around and talked. At about midnight we sent everyone home since nothing was happening!

We'd been in contact with a Dr. from the hospital who was also a friend from church. He was on call that night and was at the hosp. at another delivery. He called and asked if anything was happening, before heading home. We said no, so he went home to get some sleep. He called from home and asked if anythign had started, we said no, so he said he was going to bed. At about 1:15 am, I FELT and bill and I both HEARD a loud popping noise! By 1:20 I wasa having contractions. We called everyone again, and woke them all up after just a few minutes of sleep. Cami arrived first, I was definitely in labor. ThenI got nauseous (Yuck)! Charli arrived, then Sandi. The contractios were hard, fast and more intense than either Rebekah or Amanda's labors. Kelly came back over.

It was interesting - I directed: "There's warm towels in the dryer for the baby", "there's ice in a bag in the freezer for me to chew on (I hadn't figured out I could actually drink for thirst when I was at home...), "guard the perineum!", "Hold the head back so it deliver's slowly". My friends Kelly and Charli helped with the delivery. Miss Charli 'caught' you. We were a little surprised to find out that you were a girl, but very pleased! Just as I was about to deliver the head, the phone rang - it was Dr. Ben calling to see how it was going. Cami answered the phone and told him, the head is out, then, "It's a Girl!" - "Sariah"

It was a little scary (now, looking back on it), but it was an amazing experience being with supportive friends and family to help me! Your sisers had been asleep - it was around 2:30 a.m, but they woke them up and your sisters got to hold you almost 'right' after you were born. Miss Charli and Sandi cleaned you up and dressed you then your sisters got to hold you. Daddy was a big support, emotionally as well as physically - he sat behind me and held me up durring the delivery, so I could lean against him.

After Sariah was born, we did go in to the hospital to have us both checked out to make sure we were both healthy and fine. They wanted us to stay at the hospital, but I didn't want to! I felt great and wanted to go back to my own bed and my kids! Dr. Ben had come to the hosp. to check on us and make sure we had done fine. he actually fought with the staff (head OB Nurse) to help us get out of the hospital and go back home! He was really great!

We were able to go back home and relax in our own home and my own bed, together as a family. and with no irritaitng poslicy's and procedures to deal with at odd hours, day and night (other than a new nursing infant!!!) :-)

We became the topic of discussion on post at the clinic/hospital for a while. There head of the hospital said, "they needed to lighten up a little" and that "it was probably a good experience for them - the hosp. staff). I just knew what i wanted, and since they didn'ta particularly seem to want to let me do that, I just didn't go in! (unil after you were born). I was hoping for a midwife for the next one...

I'm so glad that you, Sariah, came into our lives the way you did! It was certainly a special experience fo us all. I grew so much through this challenge durring this esperience and have become a childbirth advocate and want all mom's to have wonderful respectful birth experiences.

You are definitley a sweet special spirit and we all love and adore you! At the time your big sisters loved you to pieces nad could hardly keep their hands off of you!!! They wanted to kiss you and hold you all the time! It was fun to have three little girsl to love! You have an awesome daddy!

I love the wonderful, tallented young woman you are growing up to be, and hope and pray that you will fulfil your true potential! I hope yoiu enjoy being in the Young Women Program. Your leaders can be a great source of strength and guidance in your life.

I love you sweet girl!

Sariah is a beautiful Young Woman now, she's 12!

So, Sariah's birthday was Friday and she had a big birthday party. The guests came over, we had pizza, then off to the local public Pool for a swimmingly good time. When they came home we had cake and Ice Cream and Opened Presents. They tried to play games, but it's hard to rangle that many girls, and get them to all decided on what they want to do, or even what movie they want to watch... What they did all like was jumping on the trampoline in the dark! yikes! Then, they ended up sleeping out there too! The biggest problem with that was the noise! they could/would NOT be quiet!!! The last time I woke Bill up to go out and tell them to be QUIET... was somewhere around 2 am. Luckily the next day when I appologized to the neighbors for the noise at all hours of the night... they hadn't heard the noise (for the most part... the one neighbor heard some squeals around midnight... but one of the noisemakers, ie: party girls - was their child, so I didn't feel too terrible).

Today at Church, the Priesthood took over primary and all the women and young women got to meet together for our lesson, and yummy cake and strawberries! Sariah was welcomed to Y.W. and got a sweet little Rose plant. I got to sit with my three beautiful young women today for class. It was nice.

I still need to write Liam's birth story, but now I have Sariah's too. And then there is mothers day to write about... I am so behind... one day I may catch up!

Another week rolls by; how is half the year almost gone?!?!?!?!

This week I've spent several days planting and gardening. I put in a flower bed in my front yard, with the help of several friends and neighbors either helping dig up the grass, offering mulch and soil, weed reducing fabric, or edging they had extra's of, or just directing and supporting my (our) efforts. I think it looks quite nice. I was tired of everyone's houses/yards, having lots of colorful flowers and blooming trees, and my yard just had a lot of boring green shrubs! They planted larger shrubs and bushes, in front of shorter/smaller shrubs and bushes. This year with the drought, and the poor planting they did when they put the plants in years ago, probably when the house was built... they didn't dig big enough holes, and they didn't add top soil, so the roots are still - (after abt. 10 yrs), in a small little knotted bundle, and roots growing on top of the ground, three of my shrubs have died! so i'm getting rid of some of them, and i'm going to put in colorfu; flowering bushes. I also got most of my garden planted.

I spent several hours for several days this week working on, sewing, pioneer trek clothes. I spent 4 hours at the church with several other ladies yesterday, and between chasing Liam down, trying to keep him away from the sewing machines, and having him remove teh movies from the computer he was watching, so that I could start it over for him AGAIN over and over and over and over again... I didn't get a whole lot of sewing done! Today Amanda and I worked on it some more, and we now have all four Bonnets, almost finished, and we have two completed apron's with pockets, and part of another apron done. I may actually get these clothes done by the time they need them in less than a month now!

And tomorrow is Sariah's birthday and there is much to do to be ready for it. I hope the weather is good, since they are planning on sleeping in a tent in the backyard! After they go to the pool and swim. I certainly don't have enough room inside for the 14 or so girls she has invited!

Crazy Life

Yesterday morning, I woke up late (it had been a long night with Liam crying that his foot hurt - and I had to rub it over and over and over), then realized I was late for my dentist appointment, and called to say I'd be there as soon as I could with Amanda for her's 30 minutes later. I got dressed, took my make up with me in the car, Liam in his jammies, and got in the van... click, click... I had a dead battery. I put it in neutral, and pushed the van back a little, till it would roll out of the garage and down into the driveway. I popped the hood, got out th jumper cables, and ran to the neighbors... noone was home! I called my R.S. Pres. who lives around the corner, to see if she was home, she actually sent over the missionaries to help me.

I got that taken care of but with the drive to Amanda' school only taking me two minutes, I didn't want to risk turning off the van yet, until it had run long enough for it to charge back up, so I called the school and thankfully our friend K was the one that answered the phone, and she signed Amanda out for me and walked her out so I didn't have to turn off the van.

I got to the Dentist late with Amanda but they were able to fit her in, and they had a no-show, so I got to go after her as well instead of having to try to reschedule! Yay! We even tried to have her look in Liams mouth - I had hoped that by watching me he'd be o.k. with it. Not so much...

From there I had to feed Amanda lunch, and the strawberries we've been waiting on for three weeks came in and I had to go pick them up at noon. So, then we got taco bell drive thru ate in the car and took Amanda back to school. Then, I delivered some of the strawberries, and raced over to the Elementary school. I had been asked to decorate Hannah's teacher's door for Teacher Appreciation week, so I met up with the kids after school and we cut out letters, and put things together and decorated the door. Sariah had a group project to work on that they had to finish up so she went on home ftr helping cut out letters(thank you S's mom for picking her up!). I brought the kids a snack. We ended up working for three hours (between chasing Liam around, etc...)

Then I raced home, dropped off the kids, picked up Amanda and the sewing stuff and went to the church for an Enrichment sewing night. The R.S. helped the Y.W. work on sewing their apron's for the pioneer costumes for the Trek they are going on for Youth Conference, this summer. Thank you to all the ladies who came and helped (as a mother of two daughters that eed two sets of clothes each..., and a husband that is going as a Pa, as well, that we are going to be gathering clothes and supplies for, I REALLY appriciated the help!

Today has been just about as craZy... runnign running running, and I arrived home finally abt. 4:30 p.m. after working for a couple of hours working on a 'Sling for Spring' fashion show as part of the Celebrate Mama event at the Von Braun Center tomorrow.

The girls were supposed to be going to a pre-camp camp out tonight and amanda was supposed to be going on a hike tomorrow, and Bill was supposed to be going to work at the Stake camp tomorrow, and I am doin gthe fashion show and meeting with a new mom afterward... so tomorrow was going to be a crazy day as well. But there is supposed to be a storm tonight, so all camp activities were canceled/postponed, and so now we have a sitter (Sariah is going to dinner with her friend from next door, Rebekah is out for the night), and we are finally taking Amanda out for her birthday dinner, (before Sariah's birthday next week and we have to take her out).

What a week! From a camping trip and working last weekend at Camp Hulaco, to a birth, to sewing pioneer clothes, to decorating a door, it's been crazy, and I still have Jam to make on eof these days when I have/find the time!