LOTS and LOTS of pictures!!! Thank you, Pappy!

So I did it!  I went up to my Dad's and uploaded all 2284 pictures from my camera onto his computer.  Then I uploaded the 101 to my blog.  Took me all afternoon, but I did it!!  

I've already spent so much time on this, I'm not breaking it up into separate posts.  So here they are, in all their long and drawn out glory :) the pictures from the last 2 months:

A FEW MORE OF THE MUSICAL:  Not sure if I put these ones on or not.

This song was always one of my favorite parts of this show.

I wish I'd gotten more of Charity IN the play... they were so blurry and didn't turn out at all... 

Jack is the cutest little Jack I've ever seen!  I love this kid's face!

This was back when he started trying to crawl.  Took him a while to really get the hang of it.

COLORING EASTER EGGS:

Nate was working, Noah was asleep, and Kelly had her friend Daphne over to participate, so a little different than normal, but we did it!  And had a great time too :)

Erika did it all on her own this year!

Brad had a lot of fun double-dipping them.  He made an Army one :).

Jack was not a happy camper.  He'll enjoy it more next year, I'm sure :).

Charity and Kelly were pros...

EASTER BUNNY MORNING:

We did all the Easter basket things the day before Easter this year.  If you have 9:00 church and know that there's no way you can do it all before church and won't have a Dad home after church, you can put in a special request with the Easter Bunny.  He was very accomodating of our situation this year.  

Consequently I found out that this is why he can reach all the kids in one day... it's really two!  

Anyway.

The kids were frustrated all morning, looking for their masterfully hidden baskets! I couldn't believe how hard they were to find!  Charity just about cried she had looked for so long.  

This was not in his Easter basket :)... just for the record :)

The morning was slightly rushed in my opinion, since we had to get off to the Maynes Family Party that morning.  But we still had our egg hunt the kids all got to search the backyard for their own color of eggs.  Charity is blue, Kelly purple, Bradley green, Luke orange, Noah yellow, and Erika pink.  This was a fun way to do the egg hunt this year.  You can only pick up your color.  Lots of fun.

The Maynes Family Party was a lot of fun.  We played a fun "Capture the Egg" game where the other team totally cheated (yep, still bitter), and then we had egg hunts, little kids separate from the big kids... 

I got some cute pictures of Jack Jack :)

MARCUS'S BIRTHDAY PARTY at DAYBREAK PARK

We were invited to Marcus's 10th birthday, up in Daybreak.  We brought our Little Caesar's Pizzas and had a pretty good time!  The kids all played like crazy!  Nate too!  They got their basketball on!  It was a very fun, comfortable evening.  Felt good.  Marcus got a cute little chiuaua puppy for his birthday, so the girls all played with her like she was a stuffed animal.  Way cute!!

This is why I love this man so much!

CHARITY'S FRIEND PARTY- A MONTH LATE!

It's been a whole month since Charity's birthday.  We had to keep rescheduling and replanning this party, and on the 12th of April, it finally happened!!!  She invited 5 friends, plus Kelly :), and they all just pretty much did what they wanted!  They spent about an hour out on the trampoline, just talking and goofing off, came in for Molten Lava cake and ice cream bar.  Then she opened her presents, that was a lot of fun, just watching the interaction of all the girls.  They were a really fun, good group of girls.  I'm going to miss them for her!!  Then they went downstairs for their movie and popcorn.  I felt bad that I didn't really get to be a part of the party, but I was so glad that Charity had it the way she wanted!  She's growing up!  Gotta get used to that I guess.  I think they all had a good time.  There were a lot of tears after everyone left.  I think Charity realized how many friends she really does have.  They'll miss her!

BRADLEY'S SHOW

Bradley's class worked long and hard on their little performance.  It was so neat to find out that Mrs. Owen had rescheduled it to have it sooner so that Bradley would be able to be there for it.  They did it on our last day at Holbrook.  They sang some pretty fun songs about safety and health.  Very cool.  Bradley was a star!

Some of Bradley's closest friends.

Bradley and Mrs. Owen

That day had been a fairly busy one for us.  With Bradley's show, then Luke's class going away party, then on to Birthday Tables, then Kelly's no-missing work party, and then making the rounds to Kelly's, Charity's, and Bradley's classes to pass out their treats and pencils and take pictures.  It was so sad.  I hate the last day of school anyway, but especially when it's the last time we'll be able to be with those friends.... anyway- 

Luke's teacher let him pass out his treats to everyone and then had him call on each person to share what they will miss most about Lukey.  I was seriously in tears.  Such sweet little kids.  They mostly said that they were going to miss him because he is a good friend.  Not a surprise to us.  He really is one of the best friends I know.  Such a good kid.  I think he enjoyed the attention.

Luke and Mrs. Buttars

After the party, we went up and got a picture of Kelly's class.  

Some of her best friends

Kelly and Mrs. Davis

Charity's class had just gotten back from walking back from Viewmont where they saw the Dance Team's show.  They were so tired and sweaty!  I couldn't believe how quiet and calm they were when I walked in the room.  Just sitting there.  But they livened things up a little for a picture...

Charity and Mrs. Thompson

Kelly with her favorite teacher, Mrs. Ashliman

MOVING DAY:

This is what our family room looked like at the end of our second moving day.  Can you believe we were able to turn the tv on and play the wii!  

First things first, I guess....

GRANDPA HATCH'S BIRTHDAY PARTY:

Dawn was so nice to help us plan a party for my Dad.  Then she pulled it all off, cooking and slaving in the kitchen for dinner.  I made his cake, a banana cream pudding poke cake- SO yummy!  I was very proud of it.  Everyone had fun and then we left before everyone lost their minds from all the chaos.

WATER SNAKE IN THE BACKYARD:

Heidi and John so kindly watched the kids for us so that we could go out for a little overnight getaway.  They did a lot of fun things with the kids while we were gone and then stayed most of the day Saturday to play as well.  It was a lot of fun!

While we were out on the rope swing, Nate caught a little water snake and everyone passed it around and then watched it as it was let go.  I can't say that I love the fact that there are snakes in our backyard, but actually, I do think it's kind of cool.  (the rats are another story!)

Nobody was all that scared of it.  Just me, Heidi and John really...

It's hard to believe that this is all in our own backyard.  I LOVE it!!!

This will be a great spot to take a picture of ALL of our kids once everyone's dressed, awake, not being goofy, and present.

Erika's a little daredevil on the rope swing, it's cute to watch her brave it out!

MOTHER'S DAY:

I already made a whole big post on Mother's day, but here are the pictures.

I took pictures of all my crazies.  Cute faces and then funny ones.  And for some reason Jack's didn't get on here... not sure how that happened...  But here's my cute LUkey!

I had asked Kelly to take pictures of the whole house, just go around and take pictures, and for some reason, every room in our brand new house was a disaster area... so I am not posting them :).  They're not always messy, so I will get some when they're not... in the meantime, here's a good one of the rope swing/stream area :)

We have a fun little park just down the street from our house, so Nate and I and the three littles stopped there on our way to the school to pick up the kids, one day.  Brought my camera :)

Does Buddy not look like he's smiling in this one?!  He knows what cameras are for!

Then we stopped and fed the ducks a little... not as many ducks as there were pelicans, so we still had one hamburger bun left at the end, but lots of fun for these two.

HE'S USING HIS CAPE!!!

I made Noah this cape for his birthday, and he is finally using it again! Made me happy :)

AS PART OF OUR "BIG PARTY" WHILE THE BOYS WERE CAMPING, Erika and I played her Cupcake Game... we LOVE that game... look how many sprinkles we earned!  Erika even shared some of hers with me...

go camera timer!

Jack Jack is truly one of a kind!

MISTY AND MIDNIGHT:

We have been telling Kelly for the past year or so, that she could get a kitten.  We had been keeping our sights on the kittens at my Dad's in his windown well, and were going to wait a few more weeks to get them out and take one home, but when we found out about these ones at Nate's friend's house, we couldn't pass them up.  They were old enough to leave their mom, box trained, very comfortable with kids, completely domesticated, living in a house... we just had to go with them instead.  

We took Kelly and Luke in with us when we went to pick it up and while we were there, Nate decided that Luke could get one too!  So we came home with TWO!  They're seriously adorable.   I'm amazed at how lower maintenance cats are than dogs.  They're so much easier!!  

The kids all love them, and play with them nonstop.  Especially Noah and Erika who are their "kittysitters" while the big kids are at school.  Erika calls Midnight "my kitty" when Luke's not around :).  Noah holds Misty all day.  It's so cute.  They're pretty good at taking care of them too... it's impressive.  

Obviously, Kelly's the one with the camera... she didn't get any pictures of Luke's kitten... I will have to get those later... 

And that's that.  Feels good to get them on here!

Mother's Day

It's killing me to not put my pictures on here.  I tried uploading them directly from my camera and it won't let me upload a bulk amount, I have to do them one at a time and considering I've taken 834 pictures since the last time I was able to post them, I thought that might be a little too time consuming (who am I kidding that would drive me NUTS!).
I'm frustrated.
Hopefully I can get up to my Dad's eventually and use his computer soon.
I keep saying that.

But until then....

My Mother's Day was so amazing this year!  I LOVED IT!!  I always look forward to Mother's Day just because I'm so proud of the fact that I am a Mother, and so grateful for the blessing it is, but then when it comes, I'm always blown away by how Nate and the kids just go all out to make it my day and spoil me!  Makes the anticipation all worth it :).  No unmet expectations, it's just fabulous!

So this year, I woke up a little early, but felt that Nate's spot was empty and could smell the bacon cooking, so I just laid in bed, with a smile on my face, waiting for the day to begin :).  (usually there's a note or something telling me not to get up, but I figured they'd just assumed I'd stay :) )

Then the kids and Nate all came upstairs (to my beloved bedroom- have I mentioned how much I LOVE my new bedroom!!  It's so amazing!  It's just more than I could have ever asked for), sang "Happy Mother's Day" to me, and then gave me a plate of some fabulous eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast.  It was like the Denny's Grand Slam times 10!!!  Nate had given me a little extra so that I could share :) he thinks of everything!  So I ate, they had bites, an we all just were happy, it was lovely.

After I ate, one by one, they all showered me with thoughtful gifts and cards.  There were so many sweet gifts!  I'm not sure I can list them ALL from memory... maybe I should consult my gift bags.  They wrote the sweetest cards, and said so many things that just made my heart skip.  They were so thoughtful!  They are always thoughtful, but they went all out for me this year.  I loved it.  I'm thinking of making a book of all the cards and letters they give me on Mother's Day.  I don't know if I can round up past years, but I guess I could just start now.  Anyway- they were so kind to me.  I'm not sure how I got such great kids, but I did.  I'm just so thankful for them.  I don't know what I would do wihtout them in my life.  They mean everything to me.

So we got up and got ready for Church.  We were a little late, but not too bad.  I sat with Erika and Noah for a few minutes in Erika's class (the men were all subbing for the women so nobody had the same teachers they'd had the week before... it was a little tricky to get them to go to class).  Then Nate took over and I was able to go to Relief Society.  They did a quick little lesson (just a couple minutes that I saw) and then they opened up the gym and had a huge spread of Breakfast foods!  I couldn't believe how much food they had.  It was amazing!  Lots of fruit too, which is what I mostly ate, I was still pretty full from my breakfast in bed.  But it was such a cool thing, everyone just sat around visiting and eating.  One of the ladies, whom I'd been sitting by, Anna, kind of took it upon herself to introduce me to everyone.  That was really cool, we just walked around meeting people for the first few minutes.  I loved it.  I felt so welcome.  Everyone was so nice.  Another lady (can't remember her name, unfortunately) came and "stole" Jack so that I could eat, and then he got passed around from lady to lady... we were both just so loved!  It was so fun.  I really REALLY love  our new ward. It's such a relief to feel so welcome and to feel so much fellowship.  I think we needed that.  I've really enjoyed the lessons I've heard in this ward.  I feel like the Spirit is so strong and I have just been so pleased with the feeling in this ward.  It's amazing.

So then I went to Sunday School by myself because Nate had ended up going to Primary with the kids... poor Nate couldn't peel them away... and then Sacrament was really nice.  It was a good Sunday.  They had had a candy buffet at the breakfast, and I thought that was probably the "Mother's Day gifts" but nope, they still had another little goodie as we walked out of the chapel.  So cool.  I felt spoiled :).

The evening was heavenly as well.  We got to just relax at home the. whole. day.  I LOVED it!!!  We did go on a little walk around our neighborhood in the evening and really enjoyed that.  I'm so grateful for this neighborhood, for our new home, and for the great feeling I have here.  It's just such a comforting feeling.

I feel a little guilty that we didn't go see Nate's OR my Mom.  Nate's was in California, so I guess that wasn't possible, but my Mom was kind of lonely I guess... oops.  I was just so happy to be able to stay home, I didn't even think about anyone else.  So maybe next year.

It was a nice day.  Thanks to Nate and my sweet seven little dwarfs :) (who will only be dwarfs for a few more years I'm sure, Bradley's creeping up on my 5'4" already!)

12 Amazing years!

Our 12th anniversary was this year!  May 15th.  The weekend before, we went on a little overnighter :).  Heidi and John babysat.  Jack is still on Mommy Moo Juice, so he had to come with us, but we still managed to have a good time.  We went and saw Safe Haven (Heidi's recommendation) SUCH a good movie!!  I LOVED the ending!  Almost cried, but not quite.  I really liked the story.  Then we went to Famous Dave's and then headed up to the hotel.  It's always nice to spend time together, but when it can be away from life for a whole day and night, it's just heavenly.  Jack enjoyed the attention as well :).  Soaked it all up.

On our actual anniversary, we were able to spend almost the entire day together.  I LOVED that.  We were both in such a good mood most of the day.  We did have to go up to the old house and clean a few things thanks to our stupid Landlord who suddenly doesn't like us because we didn't use him to buy our house.  But the rest of the day was very pleasant.  Then in the evening, Nate took me out to see Iron Man 3.  I wasn't AS in love with that movie as I was Safe Haven, may have been because Jack didn't love it.  He and I spent a small portion of it out in the hallway. But other than that, I thought we had a great evening.

I always like to talk about how much I love Nate, but I'm just running out of words to describe it.  My love has grown so much from that first day.  Which is hard to believe considering the power of my love for  him that I could hardly contain as we sat together in the Celestial Room 12 years ago, waiting to make that special covenant with our Heavenly Father.  The sweet twinkle in his eyes.  The adoring smile as I came out of the dressing room in my wedding dress.  I will never forget that moment.  And to think that my love has grown.  It's amazing how time and a few (okay, seven) kids can strengthen that sealing.  I love that we are the couple that we are.  I love how he treats me, and I hope that I treat him okay too.  It's nice to know that I will be taken care of forever and that I will have someone to live for.  He is everything to me.  I really don't know what I would do without him, emotionally, physically, mentally, he just makes my life whole.
Mushy, I know, but true.
I love my honey.
Happy Anniversary Babe!

Journaling

-0 Nate and the boys went to our new ward's Father and Sons Campout last night!  They were all SO EXCITED for the campout.  I LOVED listening to Noah talk about how much fun it was going to be and counting down.  They were so cute about it.  Nate even, couldn't stop making plans and thinking things over for what they would need and stuff.  It was looking a little cloudy while they were getting ready to go, so we knew there was a possibility of it raining, but I don't think they were prepared for how much rain they would actually encounter!  They said it rained all but 2 hours.  Everything was soaking wet!  But they still had a great time.  I love hearing about it all.  Bradley got to shoot a gun for the first time.  Didn't love the kick back, but he still talked about it like it was cool.  I was grateful for something for them to spend time with our new ward.  I think it was a positive experience for everyone.

While the boys were camping, the girls and I (and our honorary girl, Jack) had a "big party"!  Actually, Kelly had been invited to a birthday party so she was gone and then I let Charity invite 6 friends over.  So we called it a "big party" to Erika to get her psyched up for it.  I think she was somewhat disappointed with the turn out.  She asked me when the rest of the people were coming (as if 6 loud little preteen girls weren't enough ;)), and when I said that they were all here, she said, "Oh, so it's a small party then."  Not what she had hoped for.  But we tried to recover.  She and I played the Cupcake game, made cookies, ate candy, watched movies, even played babies for an hour, and so I think we had enough fun :).  Jack was pleasant as well.  So we all had a good time.  We spent a little time unpacking my room as well... it's kind of been on the back burner with all the other rooms needing to be done first.  It was a pretty fun evening I thought.  And Charity seemed to have a good time with her new friends.  They spent most of their time out in the rain... they seemed happy.  5-17-13

- Kelly finally has her kitty!  Plus one!  Not sure how, but we ended up with 2 kittens today!  They seem very playful and everyone is all very excited about them.  We'll see how it all pans out with the allergies, and the litter box.  But it's fun to see my Kelly happy :).  5-18-13

We're finally here!!!

We are finally in our new home, mostly unpacked, and LOVING every minute of it!  It's been a long 4+ weeks that I haven't updated, so I'd like to slowly add to this post a I remember things (famous last words) but in a nut shell:

We began moving on Saturday the 27th.  We'd been offered the use of trailers from several different people, so we decided that would be the way to go rather than forking out all the dough for a moving van.  The really nice trailer, with sides and all, was only available on Saturday, so we took advantage of that (and the fact that our real estate agent told us we could begin moving in early) and started the move!  Luckily Heidi and John chose to help us that day.  We wouldn't have been as productive without them.  We took the beds first.  Then we filled up the trailer with most of the boxes I'd packed and stuck in the garage.  That was HUGE!  The whole family room in our new house was full!  Crazy stuff.  Our new neighbor was there, helping us move in.  He also helped the next door neighbors move in as well.  They moved in the same day as us!  So that's been fun.  We had a lot of fun with Heidi and John, had some pizza, played on the rope swing, and then went back to the Bountiful house for the rest of the weekend.

We went to our last Sunday in the 24th ward.  That was a big deal for a lot of us.  We've made some very good friends there, many of whom I will miss.  We will be back every week for dinner group of course.  But it was hard to have the kids say good bye to their friends and Primary teachers and stuff.  Moving is so hard!  Even when I am so happy about it!

Monday was to be our big moving day.  Nate still had to work though, so I spent most of the day loading up our car and unloading it at the new house.  That wasn't as beneficial as I had hoped.  But I did have some help from my Mom and I was even able to do my dinners and clean the old house a little.  We had so much drama that day with the old Landlord.  I cannot express how grateful I am to not have to deal with him any more.  He was such a crappy Landlord, and the whole situation just made life so miserable.  It is a very good thing we are done renting.  Once Nate got home it was moving full force!  We had three trailers parked up and down our street.  Everyone was loading up furniture and boxes.  My Dad was there, Don, Nate and I and the kids.  It was craziness!  We were able to get so much of it that first trip.  Steve and Jauslin, Dawn and her son and friend, and my Dad were there to help unload at the new house.  It was such a tiring but awesome day!  I was so happy to be out of the Bountiful house.  Monday was the first night in our new house.  It was heavenly.  Nate ended up not working the whole day on Tuesday, that was a relief.  We spent a lot of the day packing and moving.  It was a pretty productive, but we began to realize just how much stuff we really have.  If it hadn't been for my Dad that day, we wouldn't have made it.  He did so much!  And let us use his trailer.

We were able to get the new house livable, and also spend most of our time moving for the rest of the week.  It was a crazy busy week.  We were all so tired!  Relieved to be able to have a nice home, but also stressed out by all that there was to do.

We were blessed to have the young women show up one of the days to help clean a little (we were their service project).  Then the young men showed up and took apart the trampoline for us when we weren't even there.  That was so nice!!

Friday was our big cleaning day, we did a TON of work that day and got a lot done.  It looked really nice... as nice as that house could look.

And then we were done.

I must say, I have very few fond memories of that house.  We made a lot of fun memories while we lived there, but I don't have warm fuzzy feelings about that house at all.  I know I should, but I just don't.  I even brought one of my babies home to that house from the hospital, and I still just can't.  I think there were a lot of wonderful things about living there, but I am just SO GRATEFUL that we don't have to anymore.  It's on to the next chapter of our lives...