LET'S GO RAYS, LET'S GO!

Noah had a great first season of baseball this year!  He seemed to enjoy it for the most part.  He didn't love that he lost his hat those last few games, I think that's why the grumpy look in this picture. 

 But he had so much fun talking about his great plays and hoping to win, etc.  It was a lot of fun to watch him and cheer him on.  He really did improve a lot over the season.  It was a little rough in the beginning, lots of rained out games, but we just ended up having a much later end to the season with make up games.  He LOVED that his best friend Josh was on his team!  What are the odds... how do we make that happen again?  He did so well though!  Can't wait for next year!

Summer Fun

Kelly started this little Fairy Garden with Erika.  They've been working on it nonstop.  It's been so fun to hear about and look at.  My favorite part is that they are totally bonding in the process :).  This little fairy leaves notes for Erika, telling her what she's left for her and thanking her for new things she's added.  It's totally cute!  Noah's even been in on it a little.  The thing that really got me was when Kelly used her birthday gift card at Michaels to buy more fairy garden stuff for Erika :).  Pretty cool.

Picture of Erika that the fairy gave her.

butterflies she gave Erika a LONG time ago, bench in between, trains are the things they put in there to hold stuff, and we put a flower in there and some more stuff.  That house Kelly got and we painted and put in there when we were going to make this.  Kelly had the idea to make a mailbox.  

This is something we put in there to welcome back to the fairy house.  Kelly thought of the mushrooms.  The chair, Kelly thought of putting in there, but I thought of putting in the table and we put in the plates and food.  Some of that is the fairy dust.

The white box is the mailbox, and this is the mushroom, I don't know why Kelly put it there :), A and B on the house because her name is Annabelle.  

That's the bed we put in there.  And the polka dots she put in there for us.  THey gave me fairy brownies with a ribbon on it.  That rock we put there.  Those were like some petals, and then there's the bench.

Those are some paper hearts that I put in there because I thought it would look good and it does.  She's an animal fairy.  That's the sign.  Kelly thought of putting those as the signs.  

More fairy dust.  The path to the welcome.  If you look really close you can see the beads.  We're going to put little flowers on the side.

Oh this one's great!!  That's a frozen man that was in Kelly's garden but she let me use it.  That's teh doorbell, and we found the perfect spot for it.  And that's the house, it's wooden, but I just painted it yellow and orange.  There's the container for watering it.

Then of course the Lemonade/Snowcone stand.  I let Erika take the camera out to take pictures for me- I love to see what the kids choose to document.

At the Clark's toy sale, the kids bought these little connecting toys.  Bradley was pretty proud of his ferris wheel and took pictures :).

Things to Remember Week of 6-14-15

DAY OFF FOR NATE
Out of nowhere Nate had the day off this Sunday.  This happens every once in a while because he tried to get the Sundays for the Family Meeting off.  Surprisingly, they've cancelled all the ones he would have been able to go to so far.  Kind of strange, but anyway.  This worked out to the Elder's Quorum Presidency's advantage since Nate was able to fast and go to the special Ward Council meeting in place of the President.  Then it was even more to my advantage that he was able to be here for the rest of the evening as well.  He made dinner while I sat on the couch... ahhhhh.  Then we all went to the Walkabout (still haven't decided how to spell that word :) ) together.  And last but not least, he was able to watch the kids while Charity, Kelly and I went to the Adult/Youth Fireside.  It was a very nice break for me.  Came home to all the kids in bed and snuggling with my honey on the couch.  Now that's what I call a day of rest.  6-14-15

KITTY DE RUYTER BONS
We had the most incredible Stake fireside!!!  This woman had been in a Prison Camp in WWII.  She read her story, which at first was hard to listen to, I wanted it to be slightly more entertaining, but after a few minutes I realized just how incredible her story was and entertainment was no longer the goal.  I SO wish I could do her story justice in a blog post.  I am set on buying her book with the hopes that it will have the whole story in it.  But for now, I will settle with just sharing some of the details.  Her family was fairly wealthy, her Mom was a Pharmacist.  She had a nanny who practically raised her and gave her a cute little nickname (??).  Her mom had felt prompted (and they were not LDS at the time- I believe they were Catholic) to build a bomb shelter, but not away from the house like normal, she wanted it next to the house and even connecting in the cellar.  It was a very well stocked bomb shelter with all the food they would need for a long time.  Food storage :).  Which all of this ended up being really good during the first part of the war they were able to use the food they'd stored without the guards knowing while they were on house arrest.  Pretty cool.  They helped a lot of other people as well.  Kitty's Dad was taken to a Prison Camp and they did not hear about him again until after the war once they were taken to a different Prison Camp as well.  This is when the craziness started.  The sad thing was in her haste to grab her mom's black medical bag, she had forgotten her rag doll.  They were only fed twice a day in the camp.  Drinks were seldom.  They were in a tropical climate so the heat and humidity were unbearable.  She told a story of when her mom had been commanded to choose a bunch of young women to serve as prostitutes for the guards for their celebration.  She fasted and prayed about this and how to make this decision, but the answer she came to was that she needed to make these girls undesirable to the guards.  She needed volunteers, but only 6 adults did.  3 of them were nuns I believe.  She and these six others shaved all the girls' heads with her haircutters.  Then she knew of a plant that when broken produced the most awful smelling odor.  She had them rub that all over themselves and then to cover themselves with dirt as well.  She went to great lengths.  It was pretty cool because it worked!  The guards were repulsed.  They did not use the young women.  But they were angry with Kitty's mom, and the six others.  They tortured them in front of everyone, stripping them down to nothing.  Then tied Kitty's mom to a flag pole, arms up so she could not defend herself.  Then proceeded to slice a cross in her back (knowing she believed in Christ and was risking her life to save the virtue of these young girls).  Then when they whipped her with the belt, large chunks from the cross on her back, tore off.  They did all of this in front of her children.  When they finally let her down she was able to tell her kids to pray for her and that they needed to remain strong in the faith and positive so that she could make it through this ordeal.  She was then placed in "the hole" for two weeks.  The hole was a six or seven foot deep hole in the ground only big enough to stand, not lay down or sit.  She was stuck in this hole with all the feces and urine from herself and others.  They would drop food down through the chicken wire on top of the hole, but it was easy to lose it in the mess at the bottom.  Kitty said that most people died in the hole.  Her mom survived.  Her legs were three times their normal size, her face was swollen, she had horrible pains in her back, not to mention the maggots covering her open wounds.  She came out speaking of all the miracles that had occurred while she was in there.  The extra rain at such a dry time of the year, so that she was able to catch the rain in a cup that she propped up on the wall of the hole.  She had miraculously caught a lot of the food they dropped down, in her mouth!  It's just incredible!  Then later, Kitty's mom jumped out in front of a samarai sword when the guard almost used it on Kitty for throwing her cup of water at him.  Earning the respect of this man and helping him to see what he had become and what the war had done to him.  This mom was INCREDIBLE!!!  She turned every moment into a teaching one.  She taught her children about everything.  The clouds, oxygen, medicine that she had color coded, vitamins and minerals... morals and values!  Once when her kids were telling her about some of the parents stealing their kids' food, she reprimanded them for judging, telling them that only God can judge and they should NEVER judge again.  Pretty cool.  So on Kitty's 10th birthday, her mother apologized for not being able to give her lemonade and lemon cookies, but that if they were out in a year, then she would for sure have that on her birthday.  This made Kitty freak out a little, to think that her mom didn't know when they were going to be out of there and that they didn't know if they'd be out in a year or not.  She decided she wanted to run away.  When she got to the fence, she heard a familiar voice- it was her nanny!!  Her nanny had been waiting for days, knowing it was her birthday, wanting to give her her rag doll.  She begged her nanny to take her with her, but she insisted that Kitty stay.  She told her to take good care of the doll.  She gave her a lot of words of encouragement (isn't that just how the Lord works- just when we think we can't go any further- he gives us a little encouragement or a little hope to carry on the rest of the way).  Then as her nanny whom she loved so much was leaving, the guards saw her and shot her several times in the back.  Kitty had to watch her beloved Nanny die.  She said that her mother convinced her not to feel like it was her fault and that her nanny knew what she was risking.  She compared her to the Savior when she said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friend." Pretty amazing.  She talked very fondly of American soldiers and the joy that overcame her seeing them coming out of the sky after the Japanese had surrendered.  She said no matter what they look like they were all handsome.  Her husband used to tease her saying, "Does that man in uniform make your heart go click click?" and she would say, "No, he makes my heart go BOOM BOOM!"  So adorable.  Another story she told was of one of the soldiers who had been caught in a tree, wounded.  Her mother insisted that they go help him, even though they had seen others lose their lives for going in the area the soldier was in- mutilated body parts as well.  But they went and her mom threatened the guards with a 7 generation curse on them and their families if they did not let her help the wounded soldier.  They were very superstitious (which she knew- she knew everything!!), so they gave in.  She was able to go help this American soldier.  Turns out the soldier was a member of the church. He told them of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and other things about the church and as a dying wish insisted that when they get out of the camp- they look up the missionaries.  He had wanted nothing more than to serve a mission and was worried that he would disappoint his mother because he was going to die.  Kitty's mom held him close to her, to keep him from going into shock and to calm him, and reassured him that his mother would be very proud of him serving the mission that he had.  This is the reason they found the church!!  Pretty cool!!!  So last story- after they got out, they were in a country where Kitty's mom's pharmaceutical license was worthless.  They were dirt poor, had almost nothing.  Kitty said that the ONLY time she saw her mom cry (including all the times she'd seen her being tortured, and when her mom heard that her son had been killed, not by captors, but by prison cell mates) was when she asked Kitty to stay home from school to help her figure out how they were going to get the money to pay the rent.  Her landlord had raised the rent and given them 45 days to pay it.  It was the 43rd day and she still didn't have the money.  She was starting to get frustrated with the Heavenly Father.  Kitty wasn't sure what to do, but she saw her old rag doll sitting there and realized it was pretty dirty, so she decided to scrub it with a wire brush (kind of random) and as she scrubbed it disintigrated in her hands only to reveal diamonds and rubys and beautiful jewelry that they had left for her nanny to bargain with.  The Nanny had sewed them into the doll!!!  It was worth so much they were able to pay the rent and also buy beds, curtains, furniture for their home.  They'd only had orange crates up until that point.  Pretty miraculous!!!  I wish I cold share all the stories.  Like I said, I know this doesn't do it justice, but I'd love to remember the feelings I had there.  I want to be a better teaching mom.  I want to take more oppotunities to teach my kids these same kinds of values.  I need to better at them myself.  I want to remember how blessed and how lucky I am to live right now.  That I have never had to go through anything even remotely as difficult as this family did.  What an incredible example. 6-14-15

INSOMNIA
So, I'm not sure what happened last night, but the insomnia reached a new level.  I was up until about 3:00 am, just laying in bed.  I guess I did get up a few times to do things and I was trying to read myself to sleep part of the time, but nothing was working!  I think I went to the bathroom 15 times.  Not looking good for the mile away bathroom at Girls Camp next week.  That was seriously all I could think about every time I had to go.  I am not loving the lack of sleep thing!  When I did finally get to sleep, about an hour later, Jack came up to my bed and requested a spot in it.  I tossed him in the middle, hoping it wouldn't be hard to get back to sleep, but there was no use.  I was stuck awake and now I was crowded out by Jack.  I decided to go down to the Living room couch.  So 3 hours of sleep (ish) only one was comfortable in my bed.  This is not looking good for today.  Hopefully we all survive.  6-15-15

EXHAUSTED
I had produce today.  I was totally on top of everything, going above and beyond, trying to make sure that it wasn't a mistake to have extra orders and such, and I was SO proud of myself!!  Well, of course, something had to go haywire, there were two people that Lisa hadn't put on the list who were expecting to get produce.  So irritating.  It took some finagling and it ended up being a good thing that one of our people cancelled AFTER I had ordered which was really frustrating, but anyway.  I was done sorting around 9:30 but I was completely exhausted!!  And I still had a whole day of cleaning and packing for camping to do!!  Not good.  I survived the day though and even managed to clean my bathroom.  It's been way too long, but it feels so good now.  I wish I had accomplished more in the cleaning and packing area, but we were able to get down to Heidi's to get the battery powered cars for the kids along with a bunch of other free crap ;).  Nate and I are so okay with everyone else's junk :). You should have seen/heard Jack's reaction when he saw the Cozy Coupe they let us have :).  So excited :).  "Thank you, Heidi and John!"  I also got Girls Camp forms signed and shirts delivered. Making progress in that area.  I just hope I can survive this camping trip and then next week's too.... I'm so much more tired than I've been at this point in past pregnancies.  Kinda frustrating.  So anyway.  Here's to the 7 hours I will hopefully have to clean and pack tomorrow!  6-16-15

Things to Remember 6-7-15

SIBS
I keep forgetting to post about Bradley and Noah's fishing trip the other day.  They walked over to the ponds and spent a good three hours fishing last Saturday.  It was so cute.  I was so glad that they were wanting to spend time together.  I hope they're nice to each other when they're together.  

So on Sunday I was trying to think of a way to help my kids bond with each other.  I guess I hope that bonding would help combat some of the fighting and also leave them with some fun memories with each other to look back on.  Nate always talks about how he doesn't remember much with his older siblings and my sister doesn't really remember a lot of the fun things she and I did together, so I was hoping I could come up with something that would last and will make lasting memories.  So the idea that came to me was dates :).  Not dates with Mom and Dad, but with each other.  So we drew names, everyone drew someone, so there are two people that each of us needs to spend some "good, quality time" with during this month.  So far, I'm impressed with how well it is working!
Just today, Bradley and Noah went on a bike ride to 7-11 as their date.  They had a lot of fun, bought lots of crazy goodies including a 2 liter bottle of Root Beer which I can't imagine how they got home :).  But they've been mostly buds all day- it's been cool.
Then, Luke and Kelly went on a bike ride too, this afternoon, to Wendy's for Frosty's.  Their date didn't quite go according to plan, Luke's chain came off at the end of the frontage road.  They told me that they were trying to fix it themselves and then decided to say a prayer.  Kelly said, "RIGHT THEN, Lisa showed up!"  I was so glad to hear that Lisa had been the answer to their prayer.  She stopped to see if she could help, couldn't get the chain off but offered to take their bikes home since they were desperate for some Frosty's they chose to WALK there.  Kinda funny if you ask me.  We all decided that this made the date more memorable :).  I did end up picking them up because I was out picking up Charity, but I think they had a good time.  Luke said he did :).  A couple times.  I asked him what his favorite part was and he didn't have one, but it made my heart smile to hear them talking about it all together and laughing and reminiscing already.
I think this will be a good thing!  I hope :).  Charity's been trying to catch a whole hour with Jack Jack, but dates with him might have to be a little shorter.  Just the fact that she keeps trying to play with him and giving her undivided attention means a lot to me. 6-8-15

PRODUCTIVE
Monday is my official cleaning day.  I try to focus on that, and this Monday was super productive.  I got tons done.  Along with all the laundry and dishes I did, I was able to organize our closet with the totes from the craft room so that they are no longer floating around our room.  I love how it looks in there right now.  I also worked on Bradley and Luke's soon-to-be-new-room.  I had to move two bookshelves and the empty game shelves, cleaned up all the garbage and toys and vacuumed.  I had helpers, thank goodness, it was a big project, but it looks fantastic!  We're making progress!  It's taking a little more motivation than I have to get going on the big part of the move.  The bunk bed and dressers will be a big deal.  But anyway.  I'm happy about all the work we did.  6-8-15

FHE
We had our lesson about changing our meeting block schedule.  The Bishop recommended that we talk with our family about why this change is occurring and pray for a confirmation that it is a good, inspired change.  I loved this family night.  It was so cool to hear all of the kids' thoughts and what they think will be better with the change.  I'm so glad they were capable of thinking about these things and being okay with the change.  I think it's a great idea, I couldn't be happier with the change, personally.  I'm glad our family is all on board.  I like having the opportunity to show Heavenly Father that we are committed.  6-8-15

TEENAGERS
Charity's been very busy lately.  Hanging out with friends nonstop.  It's been fun to see her having so much fun, but I miss her!  It's hard to believe this is the circle of life.  Eventually all my kids are going to have better things to do than hang out with me/us.  I'm happy for her though.  She got to go to Station Park on Monday with a bunch of friends.  Used her Bath and Body Works card that she got for her birthday, cashing in on some great deals!  Then Tuesday she spent the day swimming at Emily's house with her and Savannah and Levi.  I"m glad she's having fun.  6-9-15

PIANO
Luke has learned (combination of being shown by Kelly and figuring it out on his own) how to play a few songs on the piano!  Anytime  he's bored, that's what he's doing.  It's been a lot of fun to see him enjoying it and getting so creative with it.  I love having a piano in our house.  6-10-15

GRUMPY
I was so grumpy yesterday.  I don't even know what started it.  The whole tending Kambree thing wasn't helping, that was for sure, but I really don't know what set me off!  I hate it when that happens because that usually means I was just being difficult.  I wish I was better at changing my attitude than I am.  It is so hard to change.  It did feel like a lot of things were going wrong.  I had wanted to do the splash park for Playgroup and then it was cloudy, which is dumb to complain about because my kids ended up doing the splash pad anyway WITH the clouds.  I could have avoided that whole frustration.  I was in pain.  I was tired.  But these are things I deal with most of the time, so seriously, they should not cause such grumpy days.  I'm not sure why I'm posting about this.  I guess I'm hoping something will jump out at me about the day and I'll feel justified in my bad mood, but seriously, nothing is coming to me.  I was just a grump for no reason.  I feel bad I wasn't able to hide it around friends and family.  I feel bad that my poor kids had to be around me and witness it all day too.  Not to mention how it overflowed onto Young Women's.  Poor Michelle.  She deserves an award for serving with me right now.  So anyway.  No more grumpy.  I have got to overcome this.  I've got to stop letting my life feel so overwhelming.  It could definitely be worse. 6-10-15

POLIO
We got a letter in the mail saying that Erika's immunizations were not complete and that she needed another polio vaccine shot, (so frustrating that she needed ANOTHER one... made me feel so weird!) so I took her yesterday.  She is one tough little cookie!  She hardly flinched!  And I had prepped her before, reminding her how tough Kelly had been and that she got two suckers for being tough.  Then I guess Kelly told her to just close her eyes.  So she did that, and seriously, hardly a flinch.  She may have even kept the smile on her face through it all!  It was just so amazing I had to document it.  6-10-15

JUST DANCE
While Nate, Brad, Luke and Noah were working on his stone job, the girls, Jack and I were trying to make the most of our rainy day :).  It was so fun to watch them play Just Dance together- the highlight being Jack's dance moves :).  I got a video of him.  He was also letting Kelly move his arms for him so that he could get "three stars!" on the "pumpkin song" :).  So fun for me.  6-11-15

FOUR KIDS
Charity, Kelly and Bradley were all invited to fill extra spots in the car/condo with Grandma and Grandpa up in Bear Lake.  They've been having a lot of fun getting Aggie ice cream, swimming like crazy, making cookies with grandma, going out for pizza, watching movies and who knows what else!  We couldn't let the big kids have all the fun though, we decided we needed to spoil the little ones this weekend as well.  It's been a lot of fun!  Friday, after the big kids left, we delivered the cowgirl cake to the Veenendaals then grabbed some dinner at Panda Express.  The most important part of the evening was getting treats so we did that at Harmons and then rushed home for Noah's baseball game before having our beloved movie night!  It was a full evening :).  It's been a lot of fun to watch these four getting along so well, and having so much fun together, just the four of them.  I'm not sure we've ever witnessed this dynamic for such a long period of time.  I am amazed at how good they are with each other and how little fighting there's been.  Almost none at all.  It's incredible.  They picked Oz, the Great and Powerful for their movie and had no disagreements there.  Watched the whole thing and then insisted that they sleep on the family room floor.  Which, with the new rug is much more comfortable- thanks again, Heidi and John!!  They were all huddled in a small little square shaped huddle on the edge of the room, all four of them :).  It was so cute.
In the morning they all played around together, doing whatever they pleased :).  Watched a little Curious George, Princess Sophia, and Super Why, with no questions asked :).  Then we went on our biked ride.  We rode up to the snow cone shack and it was not quite open yet, so we went up to the Splash Park first instead.  The kids loved that, and Nate and I loved watching them love it!  They played together so well!  It was fun to watch Luke and Erika bonding, getting dunked on by the buckets, then all three of them playing "What are the Odds".  Then Luke and Noah riding their bikes around.  I loved watching Erika get Jack all warmed up to the water when he finally woke up from his nap.  They loved it, we loved it, it was so much fun :).  No grumpiness, just fun- seriously, it was a fun day.  We walked around the Arts/Music Festival thing that happened to be going on right then at the park, kinda lame, but the kids got to spin a wheel and win candy, a pen and a yo-yo.  That was fun :).  Then we rode down to the snow cone place, had our snow cones, then raced home so that Nate could go help the Moores with their smoked pulled pork.  We were able to rest up a little bit.  Luke played the wii with Noah, Erika napped, I got some of our laundry done- I'm still caught up people!!!  This is amazing!!!- Jack watched :).  Then once we played Secret Scrap to get our main rooms cleaned up (which went surprisingly well and fast!), we were off on some more adventures :).  Grabbed some dinner at Wendy's, then some prizes for Secret Scrap, then to Gailey Park and home for yet another movie night- after showers!  It was a full day!  I never stopped being amazed at how well these four got along!  The ENTIRE TIME!  They had a blast at Wendy's, talking and goofing off.  So much fun pushing mini carts around Bowman's!  Shark or Tag or whatever it was with the lava at the park.  Then totally agreeing Jumanji for their second movie night!  It was so much fun!!
I have learned a lot about these four in the last 24+ hours.  It's been very eye opening!  These four are very different from the older three.  They lack the desire to compete with each other.  They lack the power struggle.  It's so interesting.  Their personalities came out in a way that I have not seen (at least in a while).  I just loved it.
Now don't get me wrong- I LOVE the older kids.  They belong here and things are not the same without them.  They are so important to our family and how it functions.  And I must say that having four kids- right now- these four- is not EASIER than having seven.  You would think it would be, but even that first night, I kept thinking, this feels like more people than it should :).  And there was a lot required with very few hands to deliver.  We missed the big kids' strengths immensely.  It was just a great experience for noticing and being made aware of some of the little kids' strengths.  Kind of a cool little experiment really.  I enjoyed the time, I hope the big kids had fun and of course, I hope the little ones felt spoiled and like they weren't missing out on something.  6-13-15

Cowgirl Cake for the Veenendaal Girls

This was a fun, relatively simple cake :). Only a few hang ups and for some reason it is slightly lopsided now- why does that happen? I love that Annie lets me make their cake. It's good, fun practice for me besides being able to play a part in their birthday. Love it! Hopefully Annie will get me a picture with the hat on top.