Falling in love with fall!

This is the picture that sums "fall" up! I love it! My parents snapped this a few years ago on a road in upstate New York.
My banister will never be as full or beautiful as my mom's...but it reminds me, in part, of our stairway when I was young!

The rich color of pumpkins just yells fall!

It's that time of year when September just melts into December! I love it! I love the idea of it becoming a little cooler, the rich colored decorations strung throughout the house, and a new reason to bake! I guess I've acquired my love for decorating and baking from my mom. She's always so inspiring!

When I was younger, my mom would set the mood every year with decorating for the holidays. It would usually start in September with the fall leaves surrounding our front door continuing inside, up the stairway banisters. She has such a knack for making everything look so good! I love my memories of coming home from school with the front door being decorated! It usually meant that mom was in the "fall" mood and everything in the house (furniture mostly) was being moved around to a new location for the holidays! As a kid, that was so exciting! Now as a mom, I see that it is still exciting! (It usually takes away the "want" of new furniture for a while!) I love seeing and hearing how excited my children get when they come home from school now and get the same feelings I did! I'm not even 1/10th of the decorator my mom was and is...but I still get excited for the holidays and it's nice to see that it's still contagious!

My attempt at putting the "sweet" into fall! My pumpkins that I proudly painted a few years ago on a "Super Saturday"! (still my favorite kind of Saturday!)

Happy Fall... and thanks for the many inspirations Mom!

Seattle at six months...

6 month Stats:

Height: 27"
Weight: 19lbs 6oz
Teeth: 2 (bottom front)
Hair: still bald
Drooling: Like a leaky faucet
Food: Bananas, Carrots, Peas, Pears, Peaches, Sweet Potatoes, and Rice Cereal
(She can put down two stage 1 jars at one sitting!)

2 teeth!

I love going to the checkups...where they weigh and measure...and somehow surmise how they're doing compared to everyone else. In her case, she's in the 90th percentile...which is perfectly fine! (Brooklyn was off the charts until her 2 year checkup!) With each child I get to hear more new things...I take the good, leave the bad, you know how it is. This time it was bottle feedings. He said she shouldn't be drinking so much formula any more...just baby food, rice cereal, and water. He said formula is great...but just not as much! What? Did I miss something here. Some of my baby's didn't even start eating baby food until 9 months! I just had to smile and nod. (Something Phil would never be able to do.) I just figure...I've had 5 flipping kids...somehow they all survived and didn't become obese by being fed formula instead of water. I guess this change is no different than the sleeping positions. When I had Brooklyn, she was to only be put on her tummy for bedtime...Boston and Paris it was on their sides...Madison and Seattle...on their backs!! I think as a mom...you just figure out what makes you feel most comfortable!

Some new things she's figured out recently:
She's been getting up on her hands and knees for about a month now, but would fall forward like an inch worm if she wanted to go forward. (It was nice because she didn't really move very fast this way.) However; like all good things, this has come to an end! She's been crawling around for the past week or so and can now go from crawling to sitting up! She's been frustrated with this for a while, not being able to transition from one to the other, but she's finally got it down! This morning, I laid her down in front of the t.v. with a bottle (shh don't tell her Dr.) and within minutes she was over by my stairs! Wake up call! Had to pull out the trusty gate! Madison was just as disappointed as I was. (The stairs are her gateway to the never ending snacks she finds in the pantry.) She's getting more spoiled...when she wants to be held or cuddled, she will stop at nothing, until it happens! She goes from thoroughly p'd off...to totally sweet mid scream! It's really something! During the day Madison keeps her busy and "acts" silly to get her to laugh! They both seem to love the attention! When the older kids get home Boston loves to play with her and make her laugh too! It's one of the first things he does as soon as he's home! Paris is still her second "mommy"and smothers her every chance she gets...a lot of love there...sometimes a little too much. Brooklyn is great to have around when showers or dinners are needed!

This was the cutest picture...then I noticed she blinked!! Oh well...I love the "chubbiness" on her elbow!

"Flash Back Friday"The younger years...

I was looking through some pictures and came across some sweet elementary pictures! This was Flip and I when we were both in Kindergarten. Check us out!





He was in 8th grade and I was in 6th! He looks just as young as I do! He still gets all the "young" comments! Just the other day at work someone asked if he was 24 or 25??? Are you kidding me?



This is as good as it got, as far as "sports" or activities in high school, for me. I think Phil played basketball and baseball though! (He said he hated all cheerleaders in high school...maybe it's a good thing we went to seperate schools then! J/K)

I also found some pretty classic family photos! Check out my brother, Tyler in this photo below! This is one of my all time favorites...just because I love how "classicly" terrible we looked! This picture was taken on a Sunday in the cultural hall at church...I have no idea why?!



I loved the family picture on the left because I thought I looked hot in it! I remember curling my hair and really trying to make myself "gorgeous" for it! I love the way my brother Blake is standing on the side too! He still looks exactly like that! A total stud!

The three "wise men" vs. The three Jokers!

Phil's activities look a lot more "reverent" than ours! I have no idea what we were doing in this picture...Shavonne on the end looks flat out scary (sorry shriv!), Sarah looking a little sexy, and Me...probably the mastermind behind what ever was going on. (We were probably dropping things off the ledge on our brothers down below. We used to call their names and tell them that mom wanted them...then when they came under us we would "bomb" them with stuff! Weren't we the greatest!)

BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT!

I just wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to my sister-in-law Shauna and my friend Alisa! Hope it's the "Best Day Ever"!

Boston's Sweet Note...

Last night as we were looking at all the pictures of Phil and I...I asked Boston if he thought I was a cute little girl and he said no I wasn't that cute. He was pretty nice about it, but just said I didn't look that good. So I was giving him a hard time saying that I thought I looked very pretty! Well this morning he brought me this note! I had to laugh. I told him that I really wasn't that cute...I was just kidding. He said he knew but he wanted to give me a note anyway. I love this kid! (and all of the notes I get, good or bad!)

What's for Dinner?

Chicken and Dumpling Soup

This may not look very pretty, but it does taste pretty...good that is! A lady that Phil works with, knows I like to cook, and gave him a recipe for me to try. She says it's one of her favorites. I decided to tweak it a bit...I didn't have all the ingredients it specifically called for, including potatoes and barley, so I improvised a bit, adding dumplings cut into "fall" shapes and rice instead of the barley.

It turned out to be a perfect "fall" recipe...especially for those of you in the colder climates! My kids all loved it, including Brooklyn, who hates all vegetables so if you're interested in trying something new...

1 cube butter

3 ribs of celery (chopped)

3 carrots (chopped)

3 cloves garlic (chopped)

1 Zuccini (chopped)

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1/2 tsp garlic salt

Montreal Steak Seasoning (to taste)

1 1/2 cup chicken broth

3 large chicken breasts

1 cup minute rice

Dumplings (recipe follows)

In a large pot melt 2-3 Tbs. of butter over medium heat. Add all the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, about 10 minutes. Add broth. Cover; simmer 10 minutes. Cut chicken into 1 inch cubes. In a frying pan melt remaining butter and garlic salt over medium high heat. Fry the chicken in the butter mixture until chicken is done and browned on sides. Add chicken, 6 cups water, rice, dumplings, Salt and Pepper, and Montreal Steak Seasonings to taste. Place the lid on the pot and allow to simmer. Approximately 10 minutes, or until rice is tender and dumplings are floating on top. Makes approximately 8-10 servings.

Dumplings

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1-2 cups flour

2 Tbs cold water

(this should make a very stiff dough) Roll the dough out thinly and cut into squares or shapes.

Paris Scored a Goal!

Paris' First Goal!!

This week the entire fam traveled out to watch Paris play, yes even Madison, in the scorching heat! Yikes. There was such a huge difference from last week's 9:00 game compared to this week's 10:00 game! Whew! I'm glad we have a bye next week to allow the October mid 90's to settle in! Luckily Sandy was smart and brought an umbrella to shade the babies!


This week Phil was more than happy to give us the score...everytime we scored a goal...all 15 of them! (He doesn't believe in not keeping score! ie) "Everyone can't be a winner!")It was pretty sweet! Paris even got a couple of good kicks, and scored a goal! She was very excited with a smile from ear to ear! Afterwards we celebrated by going to Barros Pizza nearby...we heard some good things and we will have to say...YUM! Madison wanted to play so badly, but her foot just hurt her too much! It was sad to see her "benched" with good old mom, dad, and Seattle while the other kids hung out in the "arcade." Hopefully she'll be feeling better soon!

Sydney, Maddy, Paris, and Karina

4 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed...

Just one of those days! You know the days where it seems like it will never end...yeah...that was yesterday, my Friday! Friday always starts out fun because its "garbage day"! Madison is frightened to death of garbage trucks! She can hear the rumble and squeal of their breaks for miles! We have no idea why she is, but starting at around 6am(garbage collection starts at 5:30am) she starts to come unglued! We've tried waving to the garbage man, going outside to watch the garbage man, and talking about how nice garbage men are...(ours drops our cans everywhere...but atleast waves to us.) Nothing works! She just closes her eyes tight, as he passes.

When the kids got home in the afternoon, garbage collecting was over, and she was now able to let loose! I guess it's been awhile since she and the other kids were told the story about the Monkey's Jumping on the Bed...yeah well my kids forgot that one. Anyway, Brooklyn came downstairs around 4:45pm and said that Madison hurt her foot jumping off the bed. I know I should have been more concerned...but with 5 kids...I've seen a lot of minor injuries to say the least:) So I tell her to put her down and I would look at it in a minute. After about 15 minutes, I kept hearing her whine and I when I went to take a look at what she was doing, I saw that she couldn't stand up! She had this confused look on her face like, something is really the matter with my foot! I felt so bad. I decided to call my dad for a little medical advise and felt better not rushing her to the ER. I kept telling myself it's not broken...probably just a sprain...and it will probably feel better in a couple of hours!

12 hours later...2 hours of sleep...and lots and lots of crying...I decided it was time to go into Good Night Pediatrics! Luckily their hours are 5pm to 5am, we walked in at 4:53am! After 3 X-rays they decided that they needed a "Pedo Radiologist" to look at the X-rays because it's either a hairline fracture or a dislocation! Great. The one time I decided to shrug it off...so they put her in a little temporary splint until the X-Rays come back in 48 hours!

I had her pose with her new "boot". Kids are so resilient! She still gets to where she wants to go by crawling and bringing things back with her mouth! I had to laugh and take a picture. We have a full schedule today, so she'll be getting held a lot! (I'm sure she'll love it!) P.S. As I was writing the date down at 4:57am this morning...I noticed it was your birthday dad! So Happy Birthday Grandpa!

"Flashback Friday"...the college years!

(Beck, Clachelle, Rhea, Katie, and Me)

I'm totally copying this idea from my friend Amy, I just love seeing all of her younger pictures! I decided to call this post..."the college years" for obvious reasons! This is my room mate Michelle and I trying to be all "spy tech"! I just got my first job at brick oven and we went and posed on a random street bench!


This was my actual "roomy" Rebecca or "Beck" as we referred to her! She was from Syracuse, NY and was a pretty funny character. You can see my sweet poster and bed in the background! I think I was putting on make up...shocker!
The next two are my room mates from "Hurricane" Utah...pronounced Hurri-Cun, for those of you not familiar with southern utah! They're particular about that pronunciation! Anyway this was Mandy. Check out the sweet PJ's!
This was Tiffany...we referred to her as "Tiff". She was the one responsible for all the "lingo" we picked up! She drove this RX-7 that all 6 of us would cram into and cruise BYU!
People were always coming and going here at the good 'ol Glenwood aka Glenhole. These are my new room mates, with the exception of Beck and these were the flavors of the week for most of us. (Of course before Phil moved in!) Check out my sweet yellow/orange hair color!? I was always changing the color...my mother hated it!
The guy on the very right was always doing goofy things to us...so we broke into his car and left him this sweet surprise! There were so many pranks we pulled... We snuck into some boys bathroom and put the picture in the backround up. That way when they turned around...they would see us! We thought we were sooo funny!Then Phil moved in...My room mate right behind me, Katie liked Chad...who was Phil's room mate and wanted to go to this dance! So I asked him out...we doubled together...and the rest is history! Our first "couple" picture! Isn't that sweet:)

We had so much fun that we went to another dance too. We have a good story about this one! I just told Sky how we got into this dance!!! (Phil later revealed...he hated all dances...just liked the present company.)

Our engagement photo...or one of the hundreds! Ahhh, feels like forever ago!