Not a very good cover

So the other day, Nate walked into our room and right next to the door, just on the floor, was a piece of gum. But not just gum, gum with a HUGE clump of freshly cut hair in it. And wouldn't you know, the hair was brown. Now, I'm not sure what the suspect was thinking.... it wasn't a very good hiding place, nor was it an inconspicuous color. So maybe she wanted to get caught :). I do have to say that since her hair is so long, it's really not TOO noticeable, and I think we will just let it go. And actually I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with my children because no one had cut their own hair. I was starting to feel left out of the Momvos (HA! That's my new word for Mommy Conversations..... see how Nate and Chris like that one :)) when they would talk about their kids doing that. So we're all good. I remember cutting Emily's (my best friend) hair, when we were playing barber shop. I had to put the cut hair in a box so that no one would see it..... even Emily. I got in a lot of trouble for that. At least Charity was just trying to remedy the gum situation..... and the fact that she put it in OUR doorway, really makes me think she didn't even think anything of it :).... cute girl. Good times.

Friday's Fabulous Five

1. On Wednesday I got to hang out with my old friends from Taylorsville. I LOVE hanging out with them. As I was sitting there listening to everyone talk it occurred to me that 3 of us are no longer even in the ward there. We've all moved on, but stayed close and I love that. It's nice to know that there are people who we have been with and who have been with us through the last few years. It's been about 4 years since we moved from that ward and I still feel like we're all so close. I love friends that I can hang out with, be myself with, and not be all self-conscious about how I parent, or how I look..... anyway. I just loved it. Thanks Sherry for inviting us.... we had a good time.



2. I finally got some of my crafts that I have been wanting to do, started. I made two cute little bracelets for our baby girl. They got the "cute" stamp of approval from Charity and Kelly and We're thinking we'll make some matching ones for them. I got the wooden letters to do the baby's name, mostly for practice, and then we will be doing Charity and Kelly's names as well. I thought if I did the decoupage that they would be able to do it and still make them look presentable. I love letting them do their own crafts, but most of them could not be used as real decorations in a real bedroom. And even though we don't have our own house yet, I decided I'm not going to let that stop me from decorating or creating decorations for when we do. It's just like a craving I have lately. I found the cutest blanket it in the world at Walmart today, with silk on one side, and furry soft material on the other..... I'm going to try to make one like it for our baby. It's been funny this time to get so into the "girlie things". I don't know if I was just oblivious to all this cute girl stuff when Charity and Kelly were coming, or if it didn't exist, or if I was just too poor to even think about it, but it's really fun to get into it. It helps that Charity and Kelly are so into with me :) It's been a lot of fun bonding thinking of things to make for her. She's going to be a very spoiled little girl.... that is for sure.



3. We got some fairly good news from Nate's work. They finally finished the arbitration for the new contract and announced the exciting news of how the pay raise will go. It wasn't exactly how we had pictured, but it is exciting to look forward to. Again something I have to be patient for, but you know how I am..... IMPATIENT!!! I am grateful to know that things will be really nice financially in the next few years.



4. I have had 2 days now where I have been able to keep my emotions in tact! I'm really excited about it :) Although, just saying that makes me feel like a crazy person since it really has been a while since I felt this way. Oh well :)

and 5. We got to go to the blessing of one of our new nephews on Sunday. Samuel Raymond Taylor. He is so cute!!! It was a neat blessing and I just LOVE to hear all the things that these little ones are blessed with. It's such a reminder of how important our calling as parents is. We have such a responsibility to raise these children up to love the Lord and keep his commandments. I love the blessing, but it is definitely a huge charge. I get excited to see how all these little ones will turn out :) Congrats Meg and Chris.... he is really adorable!!!

A picnic and the County Fair

Saturday we had a little picnic with my Mom, Grandpa, my brothers and a couple of my cousins and their kids. It was very nice and relaxing. I could have done with just a couple more degrees, but it's not like me to ask for more heat, so I won't. The kids made sand castles and played frisbee. We had a good time!

After the picnic I finally made it down to the church to hang up my poster for the RS Enrichment activity. I need to tell you all about that, because we're trying to collect clothes for some missionaries in South America.... thought maybe y'all could help (it's even been a while since I hung out with Claire, to be saying y'all and all).

Then we headed on down to the County Fair.

The kids loved the free petting zoo. We spent quite a bit of time in there. My camera of course died here, so I only got pictures of the petting zoo and then a couple others out of luck. Nate took some on his phone though, I will have to get those soon.
Noah was funny with the animals. he really wasn't all that interested in touching them :)

He liked looking though, which was cute.


Luke made his way around and touched everything. It was really hard to get any good shots, most of my pics were blurry.

I kept hearing Charity and Kelly, "OOOOOOHHHHHH CUUUUUUUTTTTTE!!!!!!" in there little high pitched voice.... so adorable. They love little things.

All of my kids loved this turtle.....

Brad is such a sweet little guy.

A PONY!!!!

more of the turtle

Kelly made it her job to carry Noah around from animal to animal. And we wonder why it took him SO LONG to learn how to walk :) he totally loves it though :)

I just love Lukey's face in this picture :) he was telling Daddy about the turtle (which now that i think about it is probably not a "turtle" probably something better to call it, but that's what we kept calling it :)).

After the petting zoo we made our way over to the livestock. It was fun to show all the big animals to Noah. I forget that he hasn't seen too much of that yet in his little life :) He is learning the animal sounds kind of, so it was cute to watch him. I get a kick out of how all of my kids point out the baby bottles on the Mommy pigs.... HA! So cute.

We met up with Jared and Paulette and their family and they shared their tickets with us so that all the kids could ride on some rides together. The Ferris Wheel was the best. Charity and Kelly were with Sydney and about two seconds into the ride they were both crying. Poor Sydney didn't quite know what to do about it. Luckily they got a little braver later on in the ride. Charity eventually put her hands up in the air :) It's so funny to me that they beg to go on these rides when they're so terrified on them. But they really had a good time. I need to get Nate's pics.

Brad sat with Marcus on the Ferris Wheel. I couldn't BELIEVE how brave he was!!! I'm thinking it was mainly because Marcus was there. He's usually pretty tough though. I was just surprised. He and Marcus would close their eyes when they were scared.... it looked so funny to see them both going around with their eyes closed. Near the end Bradley was sticking his hand up, just barely above the handlebar, to wave to me :) He told me after that he had to wave like that because he didn't really want to let go :) He also told me, "That was fun, Marcus was scared, but I wasn't" HA! So cute. Funny kid.

The fair was really fun. It was fun hanging out with Jared and Paulette again, it's been a while. And it was really nice to just get out on a Saturday again!!

Today was my first Monday without Nate in a while. I think it had a good beginning, but by the time Nate came home, I was definitely done. We moved the girls into the boys room. I don't want to go into the details right now, we're just so crowded right now, and the girls were having a really hard time keeping their room clean, so this was the solution. Nate and I moved our things into their old room, so now I can be close to the bathroom. No more risking my life 3 times a night to make the trek to the bathroom. It's going to be interesting and I know there are issues with having all 5 of them in the same room, but it's only temporary, so.... we'll see. Anyway, I'm still a little unsure if it was the best idea, and I think it's safe to say I over did it today. So I'm not thinking about it anymore :) 6 contractions in 1 hour, not good. I decided I'm going to try some low maintenance activities for tomorrow. Maybe just get some fun crafty stuff..... anyway. We also got to go to Samuel's (my newest nephew) baby blessing yesterday. What a special thing that is! I love baby blessings. He looked adorable. I will have to steal a picture of him, I don't know if Nate got any but my camera was still dead. We did get some fun ones of Noah holding Samatha (my newest neice).... Noah was HILARIOUS trying to get me to let him hold her. He LOVES babies!!! I'm trying to decide if this is a good thing :) I can just see him loving his little sister though.... I'm sure he's just being prepared for that. Anyway, it was cute. I will get the pics.

Friday's Fabulous Five

I saw this on a blog and I decided I'm going to copy it. Basically it's just 5 fabulous things that have happened during the week. I think it will help me think more optimistically and focus more on the good :) I'm a little late getting it out, but who really cares.



1. On Wednesday we got to go to the temple- thanks to Sarah- and while we were there we ran into one of the missionaries we had had over for dinner in Alaska. He and Nate became really good friends, and we actually ran into him a few months ago at a restaurant, but it's really funny because he's from Ohio, so SMALL WORLD!! The really funny part was that he was actually there getting married!!!! It was neat to see him, he's a good kid. We totally feel a connection with him for some reason. Maybe we'll actually get together with him and his new wife like we keep saying we will.

2. We found out that we get our Saturdays with Nate back. (This does come at the cost of getting used to a new schedule again, but TRYING to be optimistic......) I am glad to have Saturday back to normal!! I was getting worn out doing all the fun Saturday stuff on my own, and having Nate miss out on so much. It will be interesting to be THE MOM all morning and the first half of the day again..... I've enjoyed having him home. But I'm pretty sure I will get more of my housework done this way.

3. I finally fit in Maternity clothes. Kind of. Good enough anyway. And bless her for this, Sherry gave me hers. I am SOOOOOOOO relieved. You'd think for baby #6 I'd have ample Maternity clothes, but with all the moves and weight gain..... well, I'm pretty much out. Or was. Thank you Sherry. Sad that I'm happy to be in maternity clothes. They're so uncomfortable. But they do beat trying to squeeze into my jeans.

4. Nate mopped the kitchen floor for me. I love him for that!

and for #5. I survived another week of this pregnancy! Very fabulous in my opinion!

this past week

I don't know why, but I just love taking pictures of my kids in the car like this. I just know that one day (WAAAAAAAY down the road ;) ) when I look in the back seat and don't see five(+) cute little faces staring back at me, I'm going to miss it and wish I had taken more pictures :)

We've had such a great week, I wish I had taken pictures of everything because I've already forgotten most of what we did.

Monday was supposed to be my OB appointment, but they had called that morning to reschedule.... I hate it when that happens. We ended up just kind of bumming around all day because of the screw up in the schedule. For FHE we cleaned out the car together. Exciting huh :). It was a good day.

Tuesday was interesting..... my Dad's Aunt (does that make her my Great-Aunt?), Nana's sister, Elaine Ferguson Sorensen pasted away and Tuesday was her funeral. I had tried to get a sitter for that day as well, and that didn't quite pan out, so of all the insanity, I took all five of my children all the way down to Provo for a funeral. The funeral was great. I loved hearing all the stories about Elaine. I loved what I knew of her which was really only seeing her once a year at the reunion, but I really did feel a special closeness with her. So it was fun to hear what a great mom and friend she was. I laughed a lot.... she was a funny old lady! Blowing straw wrappers at strangers in restaurants :) lol. Cute. Her husband had died only 6 weeks ago, so I guess a lot of people saw her death coming soon, just because they were so close (I love that about them too!), but she had really been in such good health that it really was a surprise. She was a sweet lady and I was glad I could be there for her funeral. My kids on the other hand...... Well, I shouldn't say all of them, Luke and Noah. There. Singled them out. They were awful. And I really don't know why, but they just did terrible. I ended up spending most of the funeral out in the foyer (at least I could still hear the talks, I was SO ready to leave). I'm glad my Dad could sit with the good kids. Note to self: do not take 5 children to a funeral that is an hour away. We did stop for ice cream on the way home, with Steve and my Dad... that was fun. But the rest of the evening was just torture because I was exhausted and thanks to all the sitting (in the car and at the funeral) my kids were not.... bedtime was awful. Steve saved the day by picking up Nate for me though, so that i didn't have to keep them up till 11:00.... that was nice.

Wednesday we had our Dr. visit. I was a little frustrated because I was unable to get a sitter, so we took all of the kids with us, but they surprised me. They did SO GOOD and it was just SO NEAT to have them all there to hear our baby's heartbeat. They all seemed interested (Luke and Noah...... they pretend well :)). It was fun. And Dr. Thackeray is always so patient when we have kids with us... very friendly to them and makes them feel welcome. The baby's heartbeat sounded great.... everything seems to be fine! 25 weeks and counting! I love that we are more than halfway, this pregnancy has been long.
After the appointment we headed on over to Nate's parents' house (that's been one of the good things about having our doctor so far away... it's close to Grandpa Russ and Grandma Ruthie, so we get to see them more often than we probably would). Nate's Dad has been really sick lately so we didn't really get to see him, and he was actually admitted to the hospital the next day. It's been really difficult for Nate dealing with it all. He is doing better though and hopefully will continue to do so. We did get to walk over to a small park with Nate's mom though, and had a lot of fun talking and showing her all of our "cool tricks" on the playground. It's fun to have one on one time with Grandma Ruthie. With so many grandkids it doesn't happen all that often, but we sure enjoyed it. I wish I had taken some pictures.
I was totally energized for the rest of the day probably because of the nice and pleasant Doctor visit, and I went nuts cleaning the house that evening. Even the bathroom got a sample of my cleaning bug! It was fabulous. And it was a really good thing because that night we got some pretty crappy news from Nate's work. Somewhat stressful, and I'm glad that I had a clean house for the next day's FUNK that took over my every thought. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father had something to do with the motivation to clean, because honestly, I don't know what i would have done had my house not been in the condition it was that day.... I'm just grateful!

Thursday let's see, we went out for our Thursday lunch with Nana in the afternoon. Sat around a lot (the funk!). And then we picked up Nate and got some better news about his work (still not my favorite, but good enough). Then that night we got to have a really fun barbecue with Chris and Stephanie (it was kind of our game night, but it's been a while since we actually played any games), and Chris and Meg and their kids (they came up so that Chris could look at Nana's electrical problem.... so nice of him!). The kids had a blast playing with the Taylors. Hopefully everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did :) It was fun to have company and fun to show off Nate's grilling skills (again :)).

Friday was a good day. My visiting teacher ALMOST stood me up at the park that morning. She was only a half hour late and like I keep telling her.... she got me and my kids to the PARK at 9:00 in the morning!! It could only be a good thing. It's been a while since we went to the park because I don't go anywhere in the mornings and it's too hot in the afternoon and evening. So they had fun regardless :) But she did end up showing up and just like the great visiting teacher that she is, she had an awesome message that I totally needed to hear, listened to me go on and on about what was on my mind, and then offered (I should say forced :) but she was really nice about it :)) to watch our kids that night so that Nate and I could have a night off. It was definitely needed. I usually don't take those offers simply because I feel stupid that I NEED a night off, and can't handle my problems on my own, but for some reason, I took it. So after the park I raced over to the church for another funeral. This one was for an old friend from my ward growing up. She was only 29, but had suffered from a brain tumor at the age of 13, and then many other problems before a stroke 3 years ago and then a lot of ministrokes following that. She was definitely not in the best shape. But she was a sweet girl. I really think a lot of Katie knowing what she has gone through in her life and still managing to make people smile. I have a lot of funny stories about Katie that I hold very dear to me. The things at the funeral were so good for me to hear. It really made me think twice about all of the "problems" I have to deal with, and realize that I really don't have it so bad. I need to follow Katie Ford's example and be tough. I'm glad Steve was willing to sit with my kids so that I could go. I'll miss her.
After the funeral we picked up Nate and then headed home to get ready for Charlie to come over. We got to tend my nephew Charlie (we started trading babysitting with Brent and Sarah for temple dates.... they have one 1-year old, and we have 5 crazy kids.... not a very fair trade, but we don't have to mention that!). Noah was so cute with Charlie. He totally calls him "babies" even though they're like 6 months apart, and he was bringing him toys and things in the beginning.... it was really cute (of course I'll leave out the part about him getting greedy and taking everything back later, and kind of losing the friendly attitude). Luke was pretty cute with him too. I think overall Charlie gets a little over-stimulated when he is over here :) But we're learning to give him some breathing room. And it seems like he is actually getting a little more comfortable with us and enjoys himself a little more here :) That's been fun for us.
Then Nate and I went on our date. We got to go see Transformers. Such an awesome movie!! Everyone keeps complaining about how full of action it is and how it's kind of too much "in your face", but I LOVED it. I could definitely do without the dumb love story and all the stupid porny shots of Megan Fox (maybe that's just because I'm sick of hearing about how hot she is from Steve) but that's just me. Nate and I really loved the spontaneous break, and it was definitely appreciated. I have an awesome visiting teacher. Heavenly Father has a way of blessing me with visiting teachers. It's great. They were very complimentary of our kids as well, which was nice. I'm glad my kids were on their best behavior. It's always like that in the beginning though right :) still kinda shy around them :) jk.

Saturday was a special day. I totally spent the ENTIRE day getting things ready for Sunday. And I'm not talking about ironing clothes (which I really should have done). My new calling in the ward is "Sharing Time Specialist" (don't you love how they make it sound so official! This ward is good at that), basically I do Sharing time for the primary once a month. Very easy. But this week I wanted to make it really fun and I went all out making a game for them. It really shouldn't have taken me as long as it did, but I put a lot of work and thought into it. I was also in charge of making a poster for our Enrichment Night in September (I'm also on the Enrichment committee, and I LOVE it), and thanks to an elaborate idea by one of the ladies in the committee, I was busy with that the other half of the day. I get really stressy when I have so much to do and in such a short time (you'd think I'd learn and stop procrastinating). But it went okay, I was pretty happy with how they both turned out. I didn't get out of my pajamas until that evening.

Sunday was crazy. I was a little bummed that I was only left with 15 minutes to do my sharing time so basically we got through about 4 of the questions, and then had to end early with the idea that we would "finish it next month". Somewhat of a let down. And frankly I was just way too nervous for Primary. I need to work on that for next month too. And then the poster I had made needed to be pinned up to a bulletin board in the RS room, but turns out our ward's spot is on the chalk board section of the wall.... didn't know that..... so I really didn't get to hang it up either (taping tissue paper with a bunch of things taped to it would definitely be a disaster if you ask me). They were both slightly a let down if I may be so lame to say so. Next week though. And it will be fabulous. The rest of Sunday was different than we had planned as well. The baby blessing was cancelled, so we weren't hanging with family. We decided to improvise and at the last minute invited Brent and Sarah over for dinner (bbq of course), and ended up making it a fun night where we spent time with family afterall :) It's nice to get one on one time with different family members. Maybe it's weird, but I prefer that over the large group activities. It's easier to talk. The kids did one of their little "shows" for us while we ate. We only had one injury, but it was fun that Brent and Sarah were okay with humoring them with us :) It's a regular occurance in the Maynes household.

So on to yesterday (and actually the whole reason I even started this post if you can believe that!) We had an AWESOME day yesterday!! We had made plans to go swimming with Nate's parents at their neighborhood pool a while back and had had it on the calendar, so when we cancelled it, we knew the kids would be bummed. So we decided to just go swimming on our own. We found out that Murray City Pool was pretty cheap so that was our destination. The kids bounced around the house all morning just totally excited to go swimming!! I love that they love to swim, I'm just ashamed we don't do it more often. (thanks to Pam I have a swimsuit that fits now) So anyway. We went swimming. The kids had a blast. I have to give Sydney (my 8-year old neice) a big hand for all her hard work with "teaching Charity and Kelly to swim". They were so funny when I would show them something with swimming "no mom, that's not how sydney does it!". I mean it's not like I taught swimming lessons my whole High School career or anything :) They did know quite a bit though, so I gotta hand it to her :) Noah was funny in the pool. He was pretty uneasy and had to hang on to me pretty tightly for the first little bit. But then when we let him walk around in the 6 inch deep water, he just thought he was all that and a bag of chips! I have to say he was very good at keeping his balance too!! Only a few tumbles and gulps of water for him. What a cutie. Luke and Brad wandered around for a while and then spent the last hour going on the water slide over and over. It was so cute to see their little freaked out faces as they came around the bend and into my arms. They totally loved it though. HA! The girls had some fun on the slide too..... they were a little hesitant until they realized how shallow it was at the end (apparently me catching them isn't comforting enough). I'm really glad I had left Noah's shirt on him and that I caked on the sunblock on everyone else so much that day! I got completely fried!!! My shoulders and back are still in excrutiating pain. Nate got a little too, but he had a shirt on and he's much less of a whiner than I am so I really don't know how bad his is..... maybe I should be a sensitive, loving wife and ask how he feels for once. At least the kids were spared though :) And luckily they have all tanned pretty good this summer to begin with.
After swimming we went and got a bite to eat at Rumbi Grill. That place is pretty good. I think we all liked it. And the kids were so exhausted all they did was eat (well, and spill their drinks), but it was a rather pleasant, uneventful restaurant experience.
That night we had been invited by our home teacher (who actually lives next door to my visiting teacher so they were invited as well) over to their home for dinner (a bbq of course). They were so awesome!! We just felt so good to finally feel like we have some real friends out here. They were way laid back, and it was just so relaxing. It's really been a while since we did anything with neighbors. We've missed it. The kids had a blast running around the two yards, doing just about anything their hearts desired. They have a zip line, teepee, trampoline, "forest", and well, you name it. The kids were in heaven. It really was a nice relaxing evening. I loved it.

And that was our week. I now know why I don't do this every week.... I've had to rack my brain to remember all of it, and frankly, it's just too long. But since I've been such a photo taking slacker, I figure I need to at least still keep up the journaling. I don't know what's happened to my will/obsession to capture every moment on film. I'll blame it on the pregnancy for now.... hopefully it doesn't take the whole 3 months to get it back though. We'll see. Anyway. Sorry for the longer than ever post. Hopefully you fell asleep early and didn't have to read it all :)

I kept meaning to get a picture of all of them together during one of the breaks or something, but didn't. These were the only time I even got the camera out. But how funny that all four of them were so close together for a second. None of Noah :( bummer.