The Reason I Haven't Blogged

I discovered the joy of making furniture.  And when a new passion grabs a hold of me all other things get pushed aside for a while.  We've needed a larger kitchen table for a while but I could never find something I liked, that was affordable and durable too.  After making my boys beds, I decided why not just build a table and chairs?  And so for the past two months or so I have spent every free second putting our new dining set together.
I still have a bench and two chairs waiting to be finished, but I've finished what we need to all be able to sit down together and I love it!  Flaws and all!
Someday I'll go back and remake things with better wood and more patience, but for now I'm learning, and buying 2x4 (6, 8,) lumber is cheap so I'm not braking the bank either.  

The Table 

After I put the table top together I decided to tear it apart and rebuild it, because it wasn't perfect, Major mistake! I got frustrated with the natural staining process I was trying as well.  So while its off square, warped, splotchy and Abrielle has already chewed chunks out of the edge I love this table, it's just chuck full of "character"!

The Chairs

It took me forever to build these things!   They were a lot of work and they really show my lack of patience and skill, but having said that I'm impressed and proud I actually made them, they were not an easy build nor did I have exact plans to work with. 

The Bench

Another creation of mine.  I thought the "X" legs it sits on would  tie everything together, but after building it I think I will go back and just do regular legs and make the support beams underneath make the "X" instead.

Dining Set in its Entirety

While I didn't build this super cute growth chart ruler, I did stain it, so I'll add it to my list of things completed.

A close up of the stained numbers, I thought they turned out just beautifully!

I have a list about a mile long for things I would like to build, for now I'm taking a small break from wood and have started working on a PVC Halloween prop of Jack Skellington. 

I'm not the only one building either.  I let my kids do whatever they wish with my scrap wood.  Dylan really shows his creative ability with things like that.  He built this bridge all by himself.

He build a boat as well but I didn't get a picture of it before he destroyed it playing "Godzilla" with it at our pool. He was worried it wouldn't float so he attached some of those air packets that people use to protect products while being shipped to the bottom.  He also cut up Styrofoam noodles and attached them to the top to look like steam vents.  I love his imagination and creative abilities. 

First and Fifth

 First Day of School.

The first morning of school went as smoothly as possible.  It wasn't until we almost reached the bus stop that I realized I hadn't taken any photos, so I raced home and grabbed my "cell" and grabbed a few shots before the school bus arrived...Phew!

First

Alivia was so excited for school to start again.  She even learned how to flat iron her hair. She was so proud that she did her own hair for school! 

Her teacher is Mrs. Teschendorf, I've heard great things about her and so far Alivia has loved having her. 

Here is her first day of school interview.

Fifth

Dylan had some trepidation about going back to school, and wasn't nearly as excited as Alivia to start school.  He will have four teachers this year.  He really loves his homeroom teacher Mrs Mosier, and excluding a couple of emotional breakdowns, he has been enjoying the new school year and new friends he's made.
Here is his first day of school interview.

These two were good sports sitting at the bus stop with me.  Isaac was broken hearted when I didn't let him board the bus.  Let's hope he is as enthusiastic about going to school and getting on a bus when he turns five. 

After the bus left I took Isaac and Abrielle on a stroll around our lake.  It was raining ever so softly and there was a beautiful rainbow, I thought it was a sign of good things to come, little did I know the rain storm we were going to get caught in later that day.

When it came time to get the kids from the school bus later that afternoon the sky was dark and cloudy.  Had the bus not been almost twenty minutes late, everything would have been just fine, but as luck would have it about two minutes before the school bus arrived the heavens opened wide and a downpour started.  We walked home in the pouring rain and were all soaked to the bone! 
We haven't started homework yet, so so far its been a great thing having the kids back in school.  I even had one day were Isaac and Abrielle both napped at the same time, and for an hour or so I had peace and quiet, it was so nice!

Summer Snippets

Where did the summer go?  My kids start school tomorrow and I can hardly believe it.
We spent a great deal of June hanging out in our neighborhood pool.
Come July we found ourselves on a road trip to Utah.  It was really important for me to make it back there this summer, and up until a day or two before we left I wasn't sure I was going to make it.  Thankfully things worked themselves out and I hurriedly packed the barest of necessities and left on a Wednesday afternoon.  I drove with the four kids for about 11 hours until we reached Lubbock Texas, where we checked into a hotel.  My nerves were totally shot from driving that far on a route I'd never been before, all by myself, knowing I still had two full days of travel ahead of me.  I'm surprised I even slept my anxiety was so high. 
The kids on the other hand had a great time swimming in the pool and watching the Disney channel (we have never had cable). 

             Since I was wrangling all the kids alone I didn't bother packing a camera, so cell phone pictures are all I have. 

I attempted twice to venture out to buy pizza but both times we found the restaurants had just closed.  The hotel we stayed in was fairly new and nice, but some of the surrounding neighborhoods were swarming with cops and gangsters, which didn't do a lot to help sooth my frazzled nerves. 
I didn't tell the kids where we were going, so it was fun to hear them guess and come up with theories.
The next morning we hit the road again.  About three hours into the drive we crossed into Albuquerque and the kids were ecstatic to learn we were headed to my sister's home there. We arrived in time to join my sister and some friends at a Fourth of July BBQ.  The kids finally learned that we were headed for Utah and they were so HAPPY, they have missed their grandparents and friends and cousins so much. 
My sister Heidi was kind enough to let us crash a day or so at her place and then we followed her up to Utah.  It was nice knowing I wasn't all alone. 
Maybe because I had been on the road for so long, or maybe I was just so anxious to get to Utah, but it felt like it took a lifetime to finally get there. 
We visited friends, and spent time with family.
Abrielle got both her bottom teeth. 

We went to dollar shows and an outdoor showing of UP in the mountains.
We had cousin sleepovers. 
We got together with old neighbors and had play dates.  
We got to attended our old church ward and got to catch up with old friends.

I cut my hair off, and wish I would have done it sooner.  Thanks to my sister Cozy for using one of her many talents to give me a set of beautiful lashes too. 

 Just a before shot of the hair, no after ones, my apologies.

We spent many a days at Seven Peaks Waterpark. 
We ate crap food, we laughed, we cried, we fought, and we played games.
We played around at the Highland splash park.  Where Alivia had the misfortune of splitting her head open.  Thankfully some super glue and some extra kind cousins made everything better. 

There were lemonade stands, and snail races.

 

There were fireworks and Pioneer Day.
There was the special privilege of being able to attend my sister Cozette's Patriarchal Blessing and the trips to the temple with my mom and all my sisters! 
Uncle Nyles took the kids to a Bee's baseball games and equipped them with baseball caps.

We got to meet Nyles baby girl Maicee, and Abrielle got to meet her Grandpa Ward, her Aunt Cozy, her Uncle Nyles and Uncle Eric, her great grandmothers Meda, and Blanche and her Grandma Diane and Grandpa Ernie.
I got my Indian food fix with my older brother Eric.
I had a date night with some old and very dear friends.
We had an unofficial family reunion of sorts too, it was great to get together with so many of our extended family.

Thanks Heidi for the great photos!

 After three plus weeks of partying it up it was time to go back home, because as much as we LOVE Utah and our friends and our family, there is no place like your own home.  Thankfully Derik flew in and drove us home.  I was determined to do my part of the driving so I started us off.  I drove six hours before I got to tired to drive any further, so I passed the wheels over to Derik.  He drove the rest of the way home which amounted to 24 more hours of driving.  30 hours in a car with four kids and a nursing infant is just way to LONG!  Pretty sure I wont be doing that voluntarily again, but we made it home safe and sound thankfully.  Three college boys doing the same trip we were, were not as fortunate as us and died in a one vehicle crash.

We have spent the last month or so baking in the Houston heat, IT IS SO HOT.
We've shopped for school supplies and school clothes. 
We've sweated!

I started reading parenting books....Four kids is like living inside a tornado and I simply don't know what to do with myself or the kids.
In my spare time I've been attempting to build us a new dining set.
We had meet the teacher night.
Dylan and I had the Sex talk...Sort of...
Alivia is thrilled to go back to school, Dylan not so much.  Having the kids back in school will be bitter sweet for me, hopefully more sweet than bitter this time around.
Summer, you came and went and we all survived, and quite frankly I find great satisfaction in saying that. 

Rice Cereal

Sunday Snippet

Getting caught up.

The last month or two.

• I broke our laptop keyboard, (I spilled milk on it) and using the onscreen keyboard is the pits (but it also makes the laptop usable), so I haven't been particularly excited about typing anything.  
• Isaac pulled the mother of all destructive stunts.  While I was getting myself and Abrielle dressed for the day, that terrorist managed to empty a brand new bottle of liquid dish-washing detergent throughout our entire first story. 
  
  
  
  
  It happens to be clear.  I cleaned up what I found, but I wasn't particularly thorough since I figured it was just soap anyways.  Much to my horror I learned that it is much more than just soap.  It's BLEACH and it was very destructive.  It bleached the carpets and it ate the finish off our tile.  I may or may not have called my mother after three days of crying over spilled dish detergent and I may or may not have uttered the phrase I don't want to be a mother anymore. What were we thinking when we bought a nice new home with small children?
• I'm happy to report that Heavenly Father is full of tender mercies and I was able to find something that added the removed color back into the bleached spots from our carpet and it looks as good as new.  
• I celebrated my 33 birthday.  It was a good birthday.  We finally broke down and hired a babysitter, and the Mr. treated me to dinner at Lupe's (one of our favorite places to eat down here).  Our friends Ryan and Kim joined us, it was so nice to get out just as adults. 
• I'm trying to go back to the basics with what I cook and feed my family.  I like to think I'm attempting to do something, that will be beneficial to our health and happiness.  I have been making most everything we eat from scratch.  It eats up almost all of my time.  Our grocery bill is a lot less each month, because it's extremely difficult to find foods that aren't full of unnecessary chemicals, additives, or preservatives, and I am totally overwhelmed at the total amount of time and dedication it takes to keep the fridge and pantry stocked with good for you foods. 
  Come Saturday I'm usually pretty fried and we order take out Pizza because I can't take one more second of trying to do it all.   Maybe I'll find balance and maybe I won't, we'll just have to see how this goes.   With all that being said, I've really enjoyed trying my hand at making things from scratch, I've attempted making mozzarella, yogurt, bread, and tortillas.  Most of which I have loved, so if all else fails I'm learning new things right?  I've also learned I'm a huge fan of extra virgin coconut oil, I use it in just about everything. 
• Derik's work had a 5k event on my birthday so we headed up to that in the morning, Derik, Dylan and Alivia all raced while Isaac, Abrielle and myself cheered them on. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Derik took Dylan to Lego Fest.  They had a great time.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  They both really enjoyed the slices of pizza they grabbed on their way home.  That my friends is one very large slice!
  
  
  
• Alivia "graduated" from Kindergarten.  She has loved school and is growing into quite a lovely young lady.
  
  
  
   
• I re-stained our shudders and most of the wood work around the outside of the house, I crawled out the upstairs window and stood on the overhang of the roof to get to the shudders that are on the second story.  I was gripping the window seal for dear life without realizing I had stain all over my hands.  Alivia's bedroom window frame now has my finger prints stained all over it.
• The kids had their last day of school on Wednesday June 5th.  Summer is officially in full swing now.
• My Uncle Bob and his son (my cousin) Jason were in town for work so we got together and had a BBQ.  It was nice to see them. 
• I had a episode with a Kidney Stone.  I thought I was DYING, seriously, I had no idea what was going on.  It came on all of the sudden.  Derik was at work and I called him and told him he had to get home because something was seriously wrong with me.  He informed me he had just dropped the only running vehicle we have right now at the shop and he couldn't get home.  I tried everything I knew to get the pain to stop but it just wouldn't let up.  After vomiting bile and moaning/screaming uncontrollably, I called my nine months pregnant visiting teacher to see if she could help me out.  She told me she could but she was a half hour away.  Bless her heart she found a sitter for my kids and chased me to the insta-care.  I was asked to leave a urine sample.  Which I chugged some water for.  After drinking the water the pain totally disappeared.  I felt totally sheepish and kept wondering if I was just dehydrated or something.  I was feeling really embarrassed until the Dr came in and informed me there was blood in my sample and that I would need to go have some imaging done.  So my poor visiting teacher than chased me to the other side of town for an MRI.  A few hours later it was confirmed that I had a 3mm Kidney Stone.   Thankfully I never had any more pain and I believe I've passed the stone even though I never saw it.  My heart stills races at the thought of having another Kidney Stone episode (I now have a 50-80% chance of a re-occurrence) . The pain was intense and unrelenting and left me quite senseless.  What a way to kick the summer off !
• I got this baby for Father's Day, yep you read that right I got this....
  
  
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  It's been on my wish list for a while and since we were so generous in giving the Mr. a Nook and some accessories (which he technically bought himself) for Father's Day,  he turned around and rewarded me with this.  I'm really excited to put this to good use!  How lucky am I?
• Abrielle is four months old and she just keeps on growing and growing.  She tips the scales at 18 lbs 4 oz (I think she's in the 95th percentile), and she grew 5 inches in the last two months which now puts her in the 90th percentile for height, her head is somewhere in the 75th percentile.  I adore her bald head (which is technically covered in platinum blonde stubble), and blue eyes and her heart melting smile.  She makes my soul feel joy, oh how I love her!
  
  
  

 
 

Picture Palooza V

Final Installment

Some of my Favorites and a Surprise

Almost three months later I'm finally getting around to wrapping up our Spring Break adventures.  My oldest sister and brother surprised me with this gorgeous 16 x 20 canvas print of Derik and Isaac strolling along the beach. 

Another of my favorites is this picture, I'd love to hang this one on our wall too.  

I also love this picture of Isaac wondering through the fields next to our neighborhood pool.  I'm a little more than sad to note that just three months later those fields are no longer there and in their  place are new subdivisions. 

Sunday Snippets

Our Week in Review 

Apr 29-May 5, 2013

Time is marching on and I'm not doing the best job of documenting it the last little while.  It might have to do with the fact that I still haven't found my new normal, or my sweet baby girl really likes my constant attention, or the fact that Isaac has really turned up the notch on his mess making skills and everything just overwhelms me. 

• Isaac's antics for this week include a new found pleasure in peeing where ever he wants just to spite me.  Pouring two brand new and rather large bottles of hand soap all over the house.  Eating almost two pounds of freshly grated cheese (while I was rewarding myself with a bath) and then barfing all over my bathroom the next day because of said cheese gorging.  He managed to find my canisters which I store my sugars in and while I was distracted with nursing a baby, he dumped water and sugar all over the carpet upstairs and now they are a matted STICKY mess!
• Dylan celebrated his 10th birthday.  I have been a mother for a decade and he has entered into the double digit age bracket.  By the end of his birthday we still hadn't given him any gifts.  I could tell he was really bothered by this, so being the opportunist that I am, I decided a good teasing was in store.  I said, "Dylan before we go to bed can you tell me what was the best part of your birthday"?  He quickly exclaimed that this was the worst birthday ever.  I did my best to act shocked at his declaration and then I did my best acting ever by pretending to be heartbroken.  I listed all the things I had done through out the day to make his birthday special, like donuts for breakfast, and birthday streamers hung throughout the house, I reminded him that we had just finished his requested birthday meal which I made from scratch, but none of my gentle reminders made him feel any better, so I decided before he exploded from my teasing that we should finally dig out his presents.  The look of relief on his face was priceless. 
  Happy 10th Birthday Dylan Dear, I Love You!
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Abrielle is three months old.  Time is flying and she is growing way too fast!  I had to box up all of her 0-3 month clothes.  It was rather emotional for me to think I'd never have a "newborn" again.  I love her  irresistible chunky bull dog cheeks.  I love when she looks and coos at me.  She is turning into a rather social little thing, giving smiles freely and laughing with her siblings (when they aren't torturing her in some fashion).  She teased me for a week or so by sleeping through the night, but this past week she's been getting up like three or four times throughout the night to nurse.  She seems to cry less these days, but when she does get mad or hungry or feed up with her siblings, she's learned how to turn the volume and pitch of her scream way up. 
• After 8 or so years I finally let this bad decision go.
  
  
   
  This my friends is one very expensive mistake.  In a dream world it solved all my problems.  I didn't have to go to a gym, I could workout whenever I wanted, I didn't have to worry about the weather or the season.  But in the end is suffered a fate most home treadmills face, it became a (very expensive) laundry rack.  When it was new and shiny and I had more free time and a lot more ambition, it got quite a bit of use.  But then the rollers got noisy and even though the treadmill worked great I didn't like listening to the noise.  After our free two year warranty was up it got to be to expensive to have the noisy rollers replaced, and it saw less and less use.  Then we moved and it got stuck in an unfinished basement and between the noise and having to stare at cement walls and absolutely nothing to look at to distract myself from the mundane-ness of running on a treadmill, it stopped getting used all together.  I insisted when we made our move to Texas that the treadmill came with us.  After all it wouldn't be in an unfinished basement and with the hot summers I was going to need a way to exercise and we paid way to much money to just get rid of it.  So we brought this monstrosity to Texas.  After a few uses here and there I finally came to terms with the fact that I was not going to use the treadmill and that I better let it go before it stopped working and then I was stuck with it forever.  So long story short:  I found a local charity that would pick it up for free.  Since it's still in great shape I thought the treadmill deserved to go somewhere where someone might actually put it to good use.  It's a win-win in my eyes since they took that heavy monstrosity of a treadmill of my hands (for free) and somebody can actually score themselves a very nice treadmill at a thrift store price. 
  • Last week our home teacher was kind enough to let us use his truck to get a load of dirt to finish filling my garden boxes.  I planted some seeds this week (corn, bell peppers and some more carrots).  I'm excited to see how they will do.  Growing things down here is a cinch.  But the bugs are something else, they can eat or infect a plant and the whole thing will be dead in less than a day.  Since pumping my garden beds full of pesticides sort of defeats the purpose of growing healthy food, I'm not sure I have enough skills and knowledge to keep anything alive long enough to have a harvest, but I'm going to keep on trying.  So far I have zucchini and crook neck squash (but they are not doing so well, the fruit starts to rot after a few days growth).  The tomato plants are doing gloriously so far,  We did have a few tomato worms that got away with eating a couple of stems off, but now I know they are there I can keep my eye out for them and pick them off before any more damage is done.  I had to tear out my spaghetti squash becasue it was so diseased.  My raspberry's have sent out new canes and my blueberry plants are looking good.  I chopped up our pumpkin patch so I could try spaghetti squash in that bed. 
  • The Mr. had his foot and ankle looked at.  The screw from his previous surgery on his big toe has started to come out.  He's hoping to get everything back to working order so he can get back to running and having a passion in life again.