We can do HARD things

Karie, Karie quite contrarey

2009-08-28T11:40:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year the kids and I did a "kitchen" experiment. We placed a sweet potato in a large canning jar filled with water. Soon it sprouted, and after time began to grow leaves. Well it was all very fun and exciting, and Raymond kept asking us "what are you going to do with that?"! It soon became too big for the jar. I couldn't bare to throw it out, so I took a chance and planted the potato half way in the soil, so the exposed leaves were on top and the roots in the dirt. It went through a week or so of some major shock, but the potato pulled through!!!!!!! We now have our very own potato ivy growing in the back yard.

This is our first attempt at a raised garden bed in the back yard. You can see that the plants have grown out of control. We planted tomatoes, zuccini, peppers, cantalope, watermelon, carrots, and CUCUMBERS!!!!! The only thing we seem to be producing fruit with is the CUCUMBERS! We have soooooo many of them! The only thing is they are the craziest lookin cucumbers we have ever seen!!! They are white, and grow more like a squash! Oh well, the kids still love them and can't wait to harvest a new batch each morning!

The Fabulous 5.......age 1!!!

2009-08-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

Carson was the begining of the "Fabulous 5", then came Jayson, then Brick, then Rusty, then Davis! All 5 boys born from August to March, all 5 boys will be the same age in school! We are going to attempt to take their pictures every year over the next 8 years to document their growth! We decided to put them in white shirts, (or rather oneseis this year) and ties, so we can watch them grow into them!

It was a crazy, insane morning! Babies crawling, walking, rolling, crying, laughing, falling! All in all not too bad for a bunch of stressed out busy mothers with no professional photo experience! I will repost the edited versions later, but for now here are the cutie patooties in the raw!

This is when we first started out

and all the boys are HAPPY!

These were all pictures of the boys "Crying"! These make me laugh!

Here are individual shoots of all the boys:

Rusty

Jayson

Brick

Davis

Carson

MYS update

2009-08-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

Madison made MYS again this year!!! We are soooo proud of you! Madi gets to play in division 3 with Aimee Wallace, one of her best friends, so it is going to be a fun year! Way to go Madi!

MYS auditions

2009-08-19T14:03:00.001-07:00

Madison off to her audition!

"The Boy Pagnini" her audition piece. She worked all summer on it, and now she finally no longer has to look at it ever again!

Don't "Tie" me down!

2009-08-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

Westin was so excited for his very first Sunday wearing a tie! He couldn't wait to "look like Daddy"! Unfortunetally it was short lived........when we got to chuch the kid sitting in front of us said "your tie looks like a baby tie"! That was it, the tie came off never to be seen again! We will have to wait and see what happens next Sunday when he gets to wear the tie I purchased that hangs a little longer!

A few of my favorite things!

2009-08-19T13:42:00.001-07:00

During a mundane day of housework, grocery shopping, taking care of a baby, cooking, errand running, getting kids to and from school, homework, and all other extra curricular activities otherwise not noted,.....Here are a few of my most favorite accomplishments(my happy, feel good moments!)

Clothes in my closet: washed and organized

Refrigerator: clean and freshly stocked with yummy fruits and vegetables from Costco!

All the bottles in the house: clean and ready to go for a "quick" hastle free feeding

New school year resolutions

2009-08-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

It has been one week sice school started..........I am quickly finding that I have more QUIET time than I ever imagined! After a summer of chaos the quiet is not only wecome but also a little confusing! I am working on Rusty's stocking, but that will be done and then what? I am going to be looking high and low, something will turn up! Maybe it will just be a nap!
I have also enjoyed starting getting up again for scripture reading and prayer. It always makes my day so much more complete when I start it with us all together.
Trying to keep my body in shape and healthy has been another of my challenges this year. Knowing that I am no longer going to be reproducing has given me added focus on taking control over my body! I am loving the fact that whatever I do now will stick with me forever! So the goal for the year is....Mon., Wed. run 5:15 AM, Thurs. night Ballet, Sat. 6:30 run. Raymond has been joining me in the process which I really enjoy..... that is the running, not the ballet of course (although the thought of him in a tutu is even more humorous than me in a tutu!) We are shooting for a 10K in Nov., so I will have to keep posted on how that is going!
All in all I think this new school year is going to be a good one! I never know what type of curve balls life is going to throw at me, and it always does, but I am going to try to be in the right place in my life spiritually, physically, and emotionally so that I will be ready to throw one right back at ya! Thank goodness for prayer!

Back to school, Back to school......to prove that we are not a fool!

2009-08-10T10:16:00.000-07:00

The kids are headin out for their first day of school '09!

The walk down to the bus stop is a HOT one!

Westin kickin it with the older kids!

The bus stop is quite large! One stop fills the entire bus! We have about 60 kids on our street that catch the bus each morning!

Sadelle getting on the bus for her first day of ALL DAY SCHOOL!

Madison and Kennady waiting their turn with their HEAVY bags full of school supplies!

"HOORAY" says the parents, the bus is gone......Now what?!!!!!!!

Our summer "craft project"

2009-08-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

For those who know me this is sooooo not me.......I despise "craft projects"! At any rate, I promised my girls a new bulletin board for their room so they would have somewhere to put their "special" things. I said we would get it done before school started so............the last Sat. of the summer we created this Magnet Board!!!!!!! I actually think it turned out pretty cut! Pictures really do not do it justice!

Over the river and through the dessert......to Grandmas house we go

2009-08-09T08:54:00.000-07:00

A day trip to Great Grandmas house is always a favorite family treat!

Grandma is still as beautiful as ever! We love to hear her tell us about her childhood stories, and the stories her grandmother used to tell her about crossing the plains as a pioneer.

People say I look the most like my grandma......I take that as a complement!

It is not easy to get all these kids to sit still for a minute at Great Grandmas when there are so many places to be explored and so many treats to be eaten!

I love this picture! It shows how genuinely happy the kids are to see their Great Grandma!

California Here We Come.........

2009-07-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

A day at Lego Land Aquarium with EVERYBODY!

Grandad and Westin checkin out the Starfishes

Kennady practicing her Crane Technique

Sadelle practicing her mouth excercises

Raymond "Warming" the kids up befor we could go into the Aquarium

A look out our front door, down the campsite, and onto the ocean. We love this place! You never know what you are going to get next door to you! This year we got the Hippies on parade!

Our camp on the beach we set up everyday

The hike down the stairs from our campsite to the beach. Once you come down you try not to have to go back up!

Westin loves digging with his PaPa!

We were so lucky to have both sets of grandparents there with us this year. What a treat!

Grandad Alvord made it to the beach and had a great time!

Isn't grandma Alvord so beautiful!

Madison had to spend the first three days out of the water because of her stitches on her finger, it was not easy! This was her first debut into the ocean!

I couldn't resist this picture, Bronson was so cute sleeping on the beach, and the colors were so amazing around him!

JaNae and I doing some catch up

The kids had so much fun burying their legs in the sand and then leaning. We thought they looked like trees blowing in the wind, it was so funny!

Westin munchin on a popsicle.......yum!

Sadelle spent the days digging in the sand and catching some rays. I loved her in this cute yellow bathingsuit!

Kennady spent her days surfing away!

Madison.......what can I say, I love this girl!

This picture is my favorite! It explains our entire trip in a nutshell.......fun, relaxation, and a beautiful beach!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel,......Rusty?

2009-07-30T20:56:00.000-07:00

The girls decided to try one of Madisons old wigs on Rusty one night while we were gone.........ta-da...Rustunzel!

Our Princess

2009-07-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Sadelle is most definetally our "girly" girl! She loves everything pink and beautiful! It is so much fun having a variety of personalities in our family! This was Miss Robins Ballet Demonstration for the year, she does NOT do recitals and I LOVE that!

Kaylee and Sadelle did Miss Jenee"s Musical theater class this summer for 2 weeks. I could have died driving her to and from, but if she wasn't singing and dancing all over the house the way she was I would have given up on it after day 2! Who would have guessed that "Santan" location meant "Santan Road" ughh! Their songs all had the word ROCK in them, sooooo cute! Sadelles favorite was "Rockin Robin"! We all enjoyed the fabulous performance that Miss Jenee always puts on!

A family swim

2009-07-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

The kids love swimming with dad at night!

It was stormy out and this beautiful rainbow popped up in front of us. I think rainbows are little gifts from heaven!

This was Rusty's first swim!

4th Of July

2009-07-07T17:01:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July this year! We stayed in town and suvived the heat, a first for us in many years! We enjoyed the night with our good friends and neighbors the Cranes and Stewarts.

Madison and Rusty.....She is such a great big sister!

The kids had plenty of fun with tons of cannonballs, rock jumping, sliding, and oh did I mention the "Dive in movie"!

Is life really so Urgent?

2009-07-07T15:55:00.000-07:00

I can officially say I am tired of getting up in the morning and heading to Urgent Care in my pajamas! First came Rusty with an ear infection on the weekend, then came Sadelle with an ear infection the next weekend and a holiday non-the-less, and last but not least came Madison with a swift slice to her finger while cutting a bagel. My refrigerator is overflowing with 5 different antibiotics all to be taken at different times by different children. It is times like these that I ask myself "Why did we have 5 kids again?"

I can do hard things!

2009-07-05T12:30:00.001-07:00

After many years of promptings and persuasions by family and friends I have finally decided to stop fighting and just go ahead and blog. I don't know why it has been such a struggle for me to do this, but it has. Maybe I have become a little more computer savy, maybe it's because I have tried to slow my life down so that I have more time for the little things in life, or maybe it's just because I just think my family is so amazing and that we need to document the absolutely ordinary things of our lives. At any rate here I am!