Random Pictures

Noah asked if he could brush my hair the other night!!! I loved it :)



Kelly choreographed this picture.... we took it with my broken camera, so we had no idea what we were getting in the picture, but I thought it turned out pretty cute :) and Kelly likes it :)

Things to Remember

1. We went out to Fire House Pizza (originally it was just for a fzookie, but it got to be dinner time so we just had pizza there too) to celebrate Bradley pulling his own tooth. 5-29-10


2. The girls both got their Presidential Fitness certificates. I was really proud of all their scores and times.... they both did really well.


3. My cute little red camera died this week. I seriously almost cried. The screen was shattered. This brought on some major online research of all point and shoot and slr cameras..... after a few minutes of test driving Brent and Sarah's Rebel, we decided slr is the way to go.... I'm really excited to be getting it in time for kelly's birthday.... thanks to my dad and his cheap shipping privileges. So anyone who wants to share helpful slr hints, please.... feel free! I'm really excited to play with it.





4. The planning for Kelly's Birthday is in full swing. On Saturday morning 5-29-10 Kelly got up (well, all the kids were up for that matter) early and found my box of thank you cards and had at it! Made close to 20 (I know it was close because I had only used a few of the cards before she finished the box off :)) invitations for her birthday party :) This year is our family only year for parties, so I usually don't make invites... thanks to facebook and the phone it's not really necessary, but Kelly didn't want to have that. She was persistant and took matters into her own hands. I love looking at them. She did a good job.... even if they are thank you cards :)





5. Went to see Nana's grave for Memorial Day. Last year she was with us, placing her cute egg shell plants on her beloved family members' graves. I knew it was going to be one of the last with her, but I didn't think it would be the last. She's meant so much to me, and I've felt her near me so often. I took a little egg shell planting flower (purple) and Steve brought some M&M's (her favorite). It's fun to think of all the funny things she used to do and say. We laughed a little, but I couldn't help but cry. I hope she knows I miss her. I hope she knows how much I think about her. And I hope she knows how excited I am for her to be experiencing what I believe she is experiencing. I makes me happy to know that she is where she is. I hope I can do her temple work for her soon. Charity wrote her a little letter telling her that she misses her and that she was "leaving her 2 rocks to represent her care" I thought that was sweet and very thoughtful of Charity. I'm glad she knew Nana. 5-31-10



6. We had a barbecue with the Maynes family for Memorial day. Good food, good company, as usual. I have really awesome in-laws. I think I still need to post some of the pictures from that.



7. Today I realized that it kills me to not be able to do the things I know NEED to be done everyday. This constant nursing and needing to be held Erika made me a little crazy today. But I also realized that I got to spend a good part of my day with my adorable little girl in my arms and that makes it a little better :) She's so stinkin' cute!!! How did I get so lucky!

And he pulled the other one the next morning!

ALL BY HIMSELF!!!

Bodily Functions

While we were out to eat, celebrating Brad pulling his tooth, I realized a Mom's world is very different from most. Particularly in the area of bodily functions and the constant attention that they need from a Mother. From the moment we were seated, to the time that we left I encountered several reminders that I cannot escape this part of Motherhood, not even in a restaurant.

Moments after we were seated, (in the MIDDLE OF THE ROOM!!! why can't they realize that this is torture for us and everyone else who has to witness the chaos that occurs when a family of 8- mostly younger ones- goes out to eat? and our kids are generally pretty well-behaved) I changed Erika's poopy diaper

decided Erika needed to be fed. Since we were in the middle of the room and I hate everyone seeing my chubs hanging out of my shirt when there is nothing behind me, I headed on out to the car to nurse her

I was then spit up on

Wiped up the spit up

Went back inside, wiped a booger

Listened to some muffled toots

Heard about some GREEN poop that another child had encountered during their trip to the bathroom

Wiped another booger

Picked up a few soggy, sucked on pizza crusts

Watched a few burps being forced out

Finished off with changing Noah's poopy diaper

and flushing the toilet containing the afore mentioned green poop

And this was just mealtime!

Pretty glamorous life we live! I do find it funny that for the most part this whole situation seemed completely normal. It was only when I had to flush the toilet with the green poop in it that i realized.... I'm really living the life :) (and just for the record.... I don't mind. I kinda like it in fact :))

Later on that same day, I stood in the yucky park bathroom listening to another child grunt and groan while trying to relieve himself of his constipated stool.... such fun.

(I'm looking into the bowel problems as we speak :))

random pictures

here's a picture of Erika's deathly diaper rash. Sorry if it hurts you to look at it. I just have to have this picture for later. She's had some bad luck with antibiotics, well, bad luck with the ear infections first, but some really bad luck with the antibiotics as well. This rash followed her 2nd ear infection (in both ears) and was next to impossible to get rid of until they prescribed the special compound cream. It was miraculous!!!! Took only 2 days to get rid of it!! I was impressed to say the least. Well, a few weeks later she got yet another ear infection thus more antibiotics. The doctor suggested we start with the special cream and probiotics immediately to keep it from getting so bad again. Well, turns out I was almost out of the special cream (that for some reason I had thought I would never have to use again), so we called to get the refill. Unfortunately the Pharmacy that we had to use to get this special compound has a policy that you have to give them 3 days notice on refills. They told Nate it would be done Monday (this was on a Saturday) at the soonest. So I was patient.... did what I could with the rash until then (nothing really helped).... watched it get red.... finally Monday came and I couldn't take it any more so I called to see if the cream was done. Of course it wasn't and they said that since we gave it to them on Saturday it wouldn't be done till Tuesday. I was freaking out! You would think one day wouldn't be a big deal, but it WAS! Her poor little bumb! So I started begging. I couldn't get them to budge but I learned that if it was a knew prescription they could do it taht day. Which makes sense since the first time I got it it only took them 15 minutes to make it. So I went through the loop hole and called the Dr.'s office and asked them to call in a new prescription. So a couple of hours later I called them back to see if I could come get that (sort of trying to pretend like this was a new idea).... apparently they stuck it with the other one and considered it a refill. UGH!!! I was annoyed at this point and got a little more hostile with them. I still can't figure out why they were so stubborn. It was a new ear infection, new antibiotics, and new rash! I needed new cream!! At one point the Manager had the nerve to tell me that I "should have had some left over from the last bottle" (basically 3 days worth so that I could give them their three days) but in my defense, I had no idea I would even need the cream again until that day. Anyway.... I eventually got them to see it my way.... they were jerks about it, but did what I wanted. So when Nate got there to pick it up they gave him this tiny little bottle of it (about a quarter of what they had given me before) all the while telling me that this bottle was a ten day supply (how can they even know how many times I change this little baby's diahrea diapers??). It was SOOOOOO frustrating. They were funny with Nate because when he saw how small the bottle was he said, "okay so I'll be here to pick up that other prescription of it tomorrow". They got all annoyed and said that he was picking up that one, to which he argued that we had had TWO separate prescriptions for the stuff, we wanted both. They argued that the insurance probably wouldn't let us do that to which Nate said, "I've got my card, their number, let's call and ask." .......... They were stunned but agreed. And of course it was perfectly fine with the insurance. How funny is that! I laugh when I think about it. So then he said, "you might as well get started on another refill". And they were all confused thinking that that wouldn't work and that we needed to call for the refill when we were "almost done" with the cream. He held up the bottle and said, "we are almost done with this little thing". They were so lame about it. Just dragging their feet the whole way! It was so frustrating because we were totally just trying to take care of our little baby. Okay so the funniest part of this story. Nate went back in to get the second jar of it (this stuff is like $9 a bottle, the big one we got the first time was a mistake on their part and should have cost me $30, so I thank them for that). While he was in line he received the picture I had sent him of Erika's bumb rash (the picture you see here), earlier in the day. When he saw what it was he decided to show it to the pharmacist that was helping him. She was absolutely blown away! She called everyone else over and the manager guy who had been a complete jerk to me even saw it and couldn't believe it! They all scrambled and he suggested that they give us a much larger bottle of the stuff. "She needs more than that!" they said. I find it so funny that until they see the rash themselves they couldn't just take my word for it. That my saying how bad it was and needing a SPECIAL compound for the thing was not enough for them to sacrifice 15 minutes of their time to make her prescription. So silly. I'm sure if I had gone in there and whipped off her diaper any person in that store would have said, "let her go first!" It irritates me thinking about it. So I'll be done. Just wanted to document this crazy rash.


This is the cake we got my dad for his Graduation. Such a cool thing he did! He's and Executive MBA now!

I just think it's cute to watch little miniature people using big people things.... Noah loves the vacuum and always asks if he can help :) So cute.

Luke made this a while ago, but I"m just now getting it on here. It's his hand, traced, with fingernails!! :), and his cute little L-U-K-E (in no particular order :))... I love my kids' art :) Especially the new stuff.

I've had this laying around for a while too, trying to remember to take a picture of it.... Charity made this way before Erika was even born. I thought it was sweet that she was thinking of her when she was painting. I liked it :)

Out with the Old and In with the New

Well, the new one came in a few days before the old one went out, but

there are happenin' things with some of the teeth in the Maynes family this week!!!!

On Sunday May 23rd, during church, I found this cute little tooth in Erika's mouth (you can't really see it in the picture but it's there!)!!! I had taken her into the mother's lounge to feed her and got so excited to see it that I had to go interrupt (not really, I was quiet about it) to tell Nate about it. Kelly was pretty thrilled too!!! She was my messenger. I was so relieved to see it because I was starting (well, by Sunday I was sure it was, because I had since Friday) to think she was getting another ear infection. So this was a pleasant surprise. Something's comforting about her pain being from a tooth rather than another infection..... I guess that makes sense. She looks so cute with the little stub in there :)


And cute little Bradley (emphasis on the word LITTLE!!!!!- can't believe it!!!) lost his first tooth today!!! May 27th! He's only FIVE!! Not even in school yet!!! About a week ago I started noticing that his two middle ones on the bottom seemed closer than before, so while we were in line for the puppet show at the Treehouse Museum he let me give them a little wiggle. HOLY MOLY!!! They were both loose!! It was fun, but at the same time, I can't believe he lost a tooth before Kelly!! I'm seeing a correlation between when they started teething as babies and when they lose their teeth as big kids though.... kinda crazy! Anyway. He was pretty excited about it and after trying the "tie the string to the door" trick and having the string just break, he asked me if I would pull it. I was trying to get him to wait a little because I was busy, but then it occurred to me that he was trying to be brave, so I thought I would humor him and "try" to pull it- I wasn't really sure how loose it was and if it would really come out- but crazy as it was- it came right out!!! Hardly tugged at all!!! He didn't cry at all either. He was a little freaked out by the blood, but other than that! He's so tough!! He and I made him a cute little tooth pillow to put his tooth in for the tooth fairy tonight. We're both curious to see what BOYS get from the tooth fairy :) Brad's certain he gets more than a girl :) Makes me laugh. So anyway. One tooth down for Bradley. He's growing too fast!!

Wanna help me decide???

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I took these on the way home from Eden.... I can't decide which one I like best, OR which style I like best. I need a new picture for my header, and I think I might use one of these for my blog book cover as well..... any suggestions you wanna offer would be GREAT!! cuz this is all a pretty big deal :) There are only a few where they are ALL smiling, and I will most likely choose one of those, but I can't decide if I like the black and white, the faded, or what.... Poor Noah was worried that we were leaving them there for some reason.... so he was sad. Kelly was trying to comfort him in some of these.... love that. And Brad's totally trying to show off his cool bracelet. Ya gotta love Luke's little feather necklace he was so proud to be wearing. And it's so nice that Erika is content with Charity holding her... I think we even caught Erika smiling.



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Rub-a-dub-dub we're in the tub!

We only have a shower down here so on our trip we had to get some pictures of the kids in the tub. It's been so long!! They all had a blast. Even Erika! It was fun!!

"A vacation from my PROBLEMS! You bet I will!"

Last week it occurred to Nate that we were in desperate need of some kind of vacation. With limited opportunities to get time off at work he made some arrangements for us to spend the weekend away. He told me we were going, but not where, so for a couple of days before I started getting the kids excited for our "vacation". It was funny that after a couple of days of saying how excited he was to go on vacation Brad asked me, "Mom? What's a vacation?" HA! Forgot how long it'd been. He didn't even know what it was :)..... Course the last few times we've been away it was "camping" so we haven't used the term vacation in a while. Anyway. We loaded up and went to Eden, Utah to begin the Maynes Family Retreat! We stopped in Ogden to have dinner. The weather was really crappy. The pool wasn't even open the whole time we were there because of the clouds, but we didn't let that stop us from having a good time!!! Sure fishing was out, but we with a new wii, the kids were fine with hanging out in the condo the whole time! I love Trendwest places because they have the whole fully loaded kitchen, so we can just take our own food and save money that way. Plus it was a real treat for me to have a whole kitchen to cook in. Ours here is somewhat small and limited in space (we're very grateful for a kitchen though, this is not to be mistaken with complaining.... just glad to have the opportunity to use the big one for a few days). So we had really good meals. We spent some time talking about our family and what our goals are right now and how we want to do more to make it stronger. We came up with our Family Laws, and hopefully that will help a little. The kids seemed excited about them, so we will see. We all enjoyed sitting around, and being able to play to our hearts content. We had a movie night with "Up" Friday night.

here's Erika on our trip :)

Then Saturday morning we went over to the clubhouse and made parachute bracelets. It was more for the older ones, but they all LOVED their bracelets once they were all finished. We decided that they were our family friendship bracelets.

After that we went to Ogden for the Treehouse Museum! This was my first time there and I loved it! We went to a really low budget puppet show which the kids loved, then just ran around the place testing everything out for a few hours. The kids love that they can just play with whatever at these kinds of places. They made puppets, put on puppet shows, played giant chess.... we all had a good time.

Lukey loves Tic Tac Toe... I would love to make one of these for his wall....

Kelly took Noah around a lot of the time, showing him things she knows he likes. Like the babies upstairs! She was so thrilled to show him.

he's cracking the eggs :) LOL

After the Treehouse Museum we went out for ice cream then headed back to the condo. We played a little more wii, had some yummy dinner and s'mores brownies, and then another movie night "Journey to the center of the earth". The kids were SO TIRED!! After a really late night the day before and then a full day they all crashed pretty quickly! It's funny when they're so tired they can hardly stay away. Makes me laugh. We did baths that night too and it was SO fun for the kids to have a BATH! in a BATH TUB!!! It's funny how long it's been since these guys had a bath. I had to take some pictures. We do look forward to teh day when we have our own bathtub again too.... someday.....

We all got up early and got ready for church, loaded up the car and headed home.

It was such an awesome break. It's funny how much of a recharge it was.... just a few days. I'm so glad to have a husband who can see the need for something like this and pull it all together. He's really amazing that way. Hopefully we can do this again real soon.... and more often.