Journaling

- Sunday night was the family meeting.  There was a bit of a different feel with Nate's Dad's surgery coming up this week.  We all had dinner together and then a shortened meeting.  I am hopeful and feel like things are going to work out well for him with the surgery.  We will be praying for him.

- Monday night we had the opportunity of doing Family Home Evening at the Care Center.  One of the benefits of the Bountiful Heights Stake is getting to participate in church meetings there.  I love it.  We were doing the FHE with the Davis family and when we got there, a whole bunch of people from our old ward, The Ward Canyon Ward, and also from my old ward, The 54th Ward were all there.  It was a mini reunion :).  Brother Gardner had to make a big deal about us, and told how much we meant to the ward.  It was nice :).  We love that ward.  The kids all got to sing, we sang as a family, and the kids acted out some stories as Andrea narrated.  It was a lot of fun.  I love being able to be there and feel the Spirit with this people.  Fun stuff.  We all went to Arctic Circle together afterwards for ice cream :).  Good times.

- Tuesday morning was Grandpa Russ's kidney transplant day.  We were all a little nerve racked, and prayed for him a ton.  The sweet woman in his ward who had volunteered her kidney for the cause has found a special place in everyone's hearts.  Its neat to think that Heavenly Father orchestrated the whole thing the way He did.  I can't get over how much planning that would have taken :).  And for Debbie to be so in tune to the Spirit.... it's just miraculous. 3-13-12

- Tuesday we got to go to Grandpa Hatch's house for pizza!!  The kids have to fight over the iPad the whole time, and order Grandpa around for drinks, goodies, and such, but all in all, it's a good time.  Steve keeps us entertained :)  I got to witness the amazing speed of my Dad's new computer that he built himself.  Pretty amazing!  And he said he would build me one too ;)  (3-13-12)

- Wednesday, Nate, Erika, Noah and I went to visit Grandpa Russ in the hospital.  I couldn't believe how good he looked!  He was up and walking around already!  Impressive.  He was cracking jokes and laughed at all of ours.  It was good to see him doing so well!  We knew our prayers had been answered.  The kids had all sent letters and it was fun to see him read those, and know that they meant something to him.  What a blessing to have survived and been recovering from such an ordeal so quickly.  3-14-12

- Wednesday was my first evening meeting for my assignment as an employment coach in the ward.  It was a good meeting.  I can't believe how much The Church does for people, including non-members.  It fascinates me.  Anyway, I have been a slacker, repented, and now I am going to do what I need to do to help my person in her job search.  It was very motivating to say the least.  (3-14-12)

- Thursday afternoon/evening was interesting.  I went to Carl's Jr. (or CJ's as we lovingly call it) with Steve and my Mom.  That was fun, we got a lot of talking in.  Then as we were loaded up in the car and I turned the key, the car wouldn't start.  SOOOOOOOO frustrating!  I couldn't tell if it was because it was out of gas or not, because I knew it was low.  A very kind man and his daughter came over, we explained the situation to them, and they went and got me some gas.  Unfortunately, it wasn't just the gas, it was the battery.  So we spent a good 20 minutes TRYING to jump my car.  Luckily we tried one last time "for oldtime's sake" and wahoo! it started!!  I was so relieved, thanked Heavenly Father, thanked the man, offered to pay him, but he refused and said to "Pay it forward!", and drove off.  I needed to go to Target to shop for Luke's friend Carter's birthday present.  I was concerned about what to do, should I risk running out of gas and not stop to fill up, driving on the freeway to ensure that the battery is fully charged?  OR should I risk turning the car off and go fill up, hoping that I can turn the car back on?  (there was another option in my Mom and Steve's minds, they wanted me to leave the car running as I filled it up with gasoline- I just couldn't bring myself to do that.  Sounds too dangerous.)  So anyway, I took the second option, stopped to get gas and turned the car off.  $45 later, the car would not start.  It was such a let down!  We tried jumping it with Steve's friend's car (luckily Steve has friends in high places), but nothing!  I couldn't believe it and I was starting to get really frustrated.  We decided we would need to call in for reinforcements.  My Mom called Simon, he eventually came to get her, and was able to take Steve to get his car, so that Steve could hurry and take Luke to get his present.  I was running so low on time!!  There were all these "at the end of school" things I need to do, and be home for Bradley and Kelly who were walking.  It was nuts.  Luckily Nate showed up shortly after that, swooping in to save the day, brought me and the two littles, up to the school, we gave Charity her costume, and he got me home in time for Kelly and Bradley.  It was craziness!!
The dumb car charged for Nate and Steve when they went back down to rescue it, and we got cocky, thinking it was going to be fine after we drove it around for a couple hours.  We met Steve and my Dad at Wingers, had a lovely dinner, then got out to our car and once again, it wouldn't start.  Luckily my Dad was there, jumped it and it worked really quickly this time for some reason.  This time we got worried, it really should have been fine.  So we ran over to Autozone to test it and  found out that the battery is fine, held a charge, the alternator is fine, and all we can do now is take it to a mechanic to check on the starter and the starter motor.  Lame.  Cars are so annoying sometimes!  This one especially lately.  But anyway. (3-15-12)

- Today was annoying.  I dislike the feeling of needing to go somewhere, but not being able to because the vehicle is not functioning properly.  I know, I'm spoiled. I went many years, earlier on in our marriage, where I didn't have a car, and I feel I did my time in that area.  Right now, it's just not desirable to have six children and an ornery Mom crammed into one living space for an entire Saturday.  Today was proof.  I'm going to spare you the details and not complain anymore about it right now, but I did want to say that it would have been even worse if it hadn't been for my brother Steve.  He saved the day by taking Charity and her puppy to the vet for her appointment that I had completely forgotten about and let Nate take the car.  He took her and sat there and listened and asked questions.... so helpful.  I almost feel like I was there.  It was wonderful.  I totally owe him.  3-17-12
And some other noteworthy news- Charity taught Buddy to sit!  Wahoo!  I'm so glad she is capable!

- Monday was the kids' day off from school and since everyone was so let down when we went to get Buddy rather than Nickelcade back on Charity's birthday, we decided that that's what we would do for our day off.  Unfortunately the car had different plans!  Our car had been giving us trouble ALL weekend!  We were sure it was something simple and that it was just a quick fix until we took it in.  It took them a while to get to it, and then when they finally did, realized it was no big deal.  The terminals on the battery were loose.  So they fixed that free of charge, but noticed that our sensors on our ABS were out.  So $200 later, that was fixed too.  Kind of nice to have been able to pay $100 less than we were expecting to pay for the previous problem, but then to have both issues resolved.  For once the car was on our side :).  Anyway, none of this was resolved in time on Monday afternoon.  We were so worried that the kids weren't going to get to do their fun!!  So we cracked and decided that Nate needed to take the kids.  We knew we ALL couldn't go, so Erika and I stayed home while the other kids crammed into the car and took off for Nickelcade.  I was SO relieved that they were able to go!  Nate was so fun and so generous for them and made it a lot of fun!  Dads are so much more fun than Moms at a place like that anyway ;).  They won over 2,000 tickets, so they all got something pretty cool!  I was impressed!  They seemed very happy and like they all got enough partying for one day.  3-19-12

Buddy

Charity speaks: Okay so on Friday it was my birthday.  My mom and dad gave me a dog chew toy and then a dog training book.  Inside the book was a letter.  In the letter it said: ..." We wanted to get you the present you have always wanted and you know what that is:)  SOOO daddy and I made the arrangements and made it so that you could get a dog as soon as you wanted to!! " It took me a while to understand that so when I fully understood what it meant I screamed my head off!!!!  I was so excited that I almost couldn't believe what I had heard!!  I told my mom that I wanted to get my dog the next day.  She said that that wasn't a surprise:)(which is true.  I would've gotten him that day but it was about eight o'clock and it wouldn't have worked.:)).  So the next morning I got up at about 5:30 and started to research a couple of breeds on ksl.com.  I found a lot of REALLY cute ones but my heart was set on something that had black lab in it.  When I found a really cute one I told my mom that we need to call the owner to see if they still had one of them.  We couldn't get a hold of them so I kept looking to see if there was something cuter.  I did find another really cute puppy.  We called that owner and they said that we could come and see them around 5:00.  When I heard how late that would've been I was very impatient.  We received a call from the owner I had called earlier.  He said that he still had some puppies that we could come and check out.  So we went to the first person's house and we looked at the puppies.  They were so fluffy and cute!!!  I almost couldn't put them down ( but of course I had to:)).  When we left we went to see some other puppies.  We got to there house and when I saw the puppies I almost squealed because of how cute they were!!  I waited a little while and I looked at all of them and I found the one that kept coming to me and that kept eating my pants and shoe laces:).  When I set my heart on him I said that I wanted him.  I named him buddy and he is doing good and well.  He has been really hyper and lively.  I am trying to teach him not to bite me and my family members.  He is just the sweetest thing ever.  Okay now I am done with my jabbering:)

And my version: Saturday, the day after Charity found out she could get her dog she was on ksl.com, bright and early, looking for the perfect black lab mix.  She had set her heart on a lab/collie mix (she likes both breeds, I guess she figured that was the best of both worlds :)), she knew she didn't want a pure breed, and she was on the hunt.  It took a lot of searching, help from Mom and Dad too, but we found two different litters that looked like good choices.  One was a lab/australian shepherd and the other was a lab/boxer mix.  We scheduled meeting times, and were able to drag the family all over the world and back to find Charity the perfect dog.  The first one was going to be at a gas station in Provo.  The second was in Spanish Fork.  I told Charity she had to see both before she could pick one.  I really wanted this to be well thought out and something she was sure about.  You know how easy it is to just take the first one you see when it comes to cute little puppy dogs.  We stopped and picked up Heidi on the way to the Provo one.  Eventually we were able to meet up with the guy that had the first puppies.  They were super cute and fluffy.  We were totally ready to take one.  Charity especially.  Thankfully Heidi knew my plan and wanted to see the lab\boxers herself, so she insisted that we follow through with our plans and go see the others.  We drove out to Spanish Fork (beef jerky in tow... it really felt like a road trip :) ), and checked out the 8 (or so) lab/boxer mix puppies.  They were ADORABLE!!!  I couldn't believe there were so many and this was only HALF of the litter!!  We all fell in love with them.  I don't think it was difficult for Charity to make her decision.  She found the one she thought was most hyper, she watched him play tug-o-war with the owner, and she was sold.  It was so fun!  

We stopped at the store to grab some food and a few last minute things like a leash and toys.  It wasn't long before the cute little thing totally threw up on Charity's lap!!!!  I couldn't believe it!  She handled it so well though!  We were on our way to the park and thought that would be a good way to let him get some fresh air.  We had our little picnic and then headed back home.  He threw up one more time on the way home.  He really wanted to break Charity in as a dog owner I think.  If she thought pee and poop was going to be gross.... try vomit!!!  She was really a pro though, it was impressive.

He has been such a sweet little puppy!  He was super sleepy for the first few days, just like an infant.  He was only 7 weeks old, so no surprise.  But he is slowly showing us his big personality.  We have been amazed at how well potty-trained he is.  I thank my lucky stars we were able to find a dog this easy (so far! I know there's more).  It's been a lot of fun for the most part.  I think once Charity is done with her play and her insanely long practices, she will be able to really bond with him and spend the time she really needs to with him.  In the meantime, we've all been able to play with, cuddle, and clean up after him :).  So he feels a lot like a new family member :).

Charity's Big Day!

Charity seemed all grown up, the morning of her birthday.  It was fun to watch her be "big sis" to everyone.  She loved her sign that I started the night before, and Kelly and her "crew" finished in the morning.  Kelly wanted to make her sign SO BADLY!  You can see that Erika helped out a lot :)  Everyone had to be all ready for school before she could open her presents.... perfect motivation.  They had all gone shopping with Dad the night before (I should explain that I was busy making a costume for a marionette and coaching a student on a book report the night before, so I was not just being a slacker mom), and were very excited to shower Charity with their gifts.

This was adorable... Erika had slept in and when she woke up, came RUNNING into the living room and jumped right up into Charity's lap to help her open presents.  Such cute sisters.

She got lots of candy, and lots of DOG stuff from her sibs.

(oh, I should put this in it's own post, but I'll just sort it out later when I make my book.  Erika has a new fetish.  She likes caressing arms.  Even her own as you can see in this picture.  Bare skinned arms.  It's hilarious and sweet at the same time.  She will rub my arms even as I am setting her on the potty, just every chance she gets to touch them.  And I have to ask her to stop at night, when she comes into bed with me, and starts obsessively caressing me.  It's distracting.  But SO CUTE and sweet. )

She got two little stuffed dogs.

Kelly got her a cool little pencil holder and highlighters with some dog-bone erasers to set on her desk at school.  Very cool.

The birthday girl and her two sisters... I love these girls SO MUCH!

After a couple presents (she was only supposed to open one, not sure what happened there), it was off to school!

I hate that I don't get to be with my kids on their birthdays, and I always have, and I think I always will.  I'm still not okay with it.  One day, when they dislike school, it will be our day to play hookey I decided.

That day was a little busy... I don't remember why.  There were many things to do, along with getting my house presentable for the birthday party that night.

I took some time to make the dog and bone topper for her cake, and bought her cake and some donuts to take to her class.  There was some other stuff in there, but I'm drawing a blank.  Thanks to Steve for making it so I didn't have to haul 4 little kids up to the school.

Charity had to have play practice on her birthday as well, and even though it was supposed to be over at 3:30, they were not done and Nate had to drag her out of there at 5:00 in time for her party!!!  I cannot believe how insane the play production committee is this year... they are die hard play people.

Time for the party, we had a lot of guests, the Bajio Chicken tacos were great when they were finally done, and it seemed like a good time.

We did presents early at the guests' requests because my chicken was taking too long to cook.

HA!  I don't know what this face was for, but it makes me laugh :)  I'm sure Charity will love it :)

So, Nate and I had the best present planned for Charity.  We found out from our Landlord that it was now okay for us to have pets in this house.  It would require a  pretty substantial deposit, and the intent that we will put in new carpet if it is ruined at all.  This seemed worth it to us, given how anxious Charity has been for the last 2 years to get her own dog.  We told her back when she was 7 that she could get one when she was 8 (this is how our life gets messy, we try to plan when there's no plans).  That didn't happen, and she is now 10!  So this seemed like a good time.  We didn't, however, want to just buy her the dog.  For a few reasons.  We wanted her to be able to pick it out herself.  And we wanted her to feel responsible for the thing.  It seems like if you have to earn and save the money yourself, you will be more likely to take care of it.  I know this is just a theory, but it makes more sense to me than just giving it to her.  Plus she did that whole candy thing to earn the money to buy her dog.... why not do it!  So anyway.  Our plan was to give her a good dog training book, a dog toy, and a letter explaining that she could buy her dog.  Well, apparently my letter was a little too wordy (imagine that!) and not clear, because she had no idea what I had said in it!!!

Here she is reading the letter to herself.

And here's her face after I said, "Are you excited?  Did you even read it?"  Because I had totally pictured her jumping up and down, screaming, the works, after finding out that she could finally get her dog!  We even had Nate poised to snap a picture at the very moment that she figured that out.  

So anticlimactic to explain to her what it said, explain that she could get her dog anytime, as soon as she wanted.  And THEN have her jump up and down and be excited.  And I must say, it wasn't as much as I had wanted.  I am still slightly disappointed in her reaction.  But anyway- that was the big moment we had all been waiting for ;)

This was her cute ice cream cake that she had requested (I was going to try to make it myself, but I totally wasn't feeling it that day.  I lost all motivation and headed on over to Dairy Queen).  She did want a dog on it though, so I made the little fondant doggie and bone.  Not sure how well they turned out, but whatever.  Like I said, I just wasn't feeling the whole cake thing that day.... weird.  It sure was yummy though!  And don't the little cookie dough bits look like dog food!

It was a fun day.  I'm hope she enjoyed it!

We're into the double digits people!!!!  How crazy is that!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARITY!!!

just cute

This cute little lady, with her legs crossed, is playing Mommy's Kindle.  So adorable.

The Living Planet Aquarium

I had the opportunity to go on Kelly's field trip with her on Thursday.  It was a bit of a surprise, kind of last minute since I didn't know I had been chosen to go.  I was late getting my $6 to her teacher, so on Wednesday morning, when I was supposed to have it in, but I was there, reading with the kids, Mrs. Ashliman came out to the hallway and informed me that because they get 4 parents in for free, she would let me be one of the free parents!  Wahoo!  That was nice of her, and I was happy :).  So Thursday came, my Mom willingly watched my two toddlers and the toddler puppy as well.  I had to ride separate from Kelly, in a carpool of Moms, Kelly rode in the bus, and we all met up at the Living Planet Aquarium.  We had a lot of fun.  It was just Kelly, her friends Sariah and Lucy, and Lucy's Mom in our group.  We covered quite a bit of ground before our scheduled lecture on high tide and low tide.  But much to Kelly's dismay, we did not get to see the otters.  I must say, if you're going to drive all the way out there and go out of your way to do something like that, why not let the kids look at the cool animals the entire hour, rather than cutting it in half for a lecture that they could easily receive in the classroom?  Just a thought.  We did have a lot of fun!  Good times!  I can't believe I forgot my camera, hopefully Valerie will give me some of the ones she took on her camera ;)