What do you all think?

As most of you know...I quit facebook back in like June or something. I loved being able to feel connected to people. The truth of it is (and this is what I told my SIL when we asked why I quit)...I often find myself bored and lonely and facebook gave me something to do and a connection to people I know but don't live near. BUT...I soon realized that facebook was a crutch and I needed to just quit cold turkey. Honesty, I haven't missed it one bit. I'd rather blog ( have to be careful about my time there too) and if I really want to talk to someone who doesn't blog I will call them or email them or send them a letter through the good old fashion mail. If I don't have access to a person through these means then, even though I may be interested in what's going on in their lives, it's not worth my time. Sitting at a computer instead of engaging in real life with my family is just sad. SO...I of course have felt like people think I am a little self righteous in saying that I quit facebook....but then I came across THIS article on the Mormon Times website and it was good to feel some validation about my choice. I know that we all have our own reasons for wanting to stay up to date with all the latest and greatest ways to get in touch and keep in touch with people...but I think it is definately something worth re-evaluating in our lives every once in a while. So...read the article (it's not long) and tell me what you think!

LOVE it!

Dawniel and I made a Wal-Mart run last night. (thank you Brandon!) We needed a break from the house and kids...and we needed to get a few supplies to make this:

It was so easy to make. The truth is that Dawniel did most of it. We figured out the colors and things together and then she did the hands on work while I read instructions to her. It's so simple to make (basically just cutting, folding and adhering). I bought some super cute ribbon that I am going to use on mine. I am giving this one to one of my Laurels who had a birthday yesterday. If/when anyone you make one, remember that you do  not need to adhere the paper to the book at any other point but the inside flaps...otherwise it wont open all the way. Good thing I was the instruction reader and caught that detail. (just want to make myself feel important really lol) ANYHOW! I totally recommend this craft to people who like to start and finish a craft within an hour (or less). The hardest part was deciding what paper, ribbon and flower to use...there's SO much cute stuff out there! 

Me: Weston, do you want to have a corn dog for lunch?

Weston: No, I'm too busy.

What could a  two year old possibly be doing that would make him too busy to stop and eat a processed meat product full of fat, dipped in batter, fried, frozen then microwaved?

This....

He was "stream rolling" the popcorn...a very important job!

looking large

                  

So...this is me. (Remember...the camera adds 10 pounds!) I had Brandon take a picture of me the other day before I left for a Stake Humanitarian Project. My hair was done on a day other than Sunday...so I thought we'd better get a shot because that doesn't happen very often! Looking at these makes me realize that I need to try to smile and look normal for a picture. I am just not photogenic. (I'd much rather take a picture than be in one). Oh well. I am trying to get more pictures of me pregnant with this baby. I normally try to hide from the camera, so most of the pictures of me pregnant with the other kids are scary ones of me with messy hair, and funky clothes and probably not ones I can share because I don't have a bra on or something like that. But, I have learned that a funny thing happens after you give birth....you actually MISS being pregnant. I always regret not having more pictures of me with a big belly that was supposed to be big and not just mushy from baby fat.  So! Anyhow! I have about 15 more weeks to go! I am trying to not be discouraged by the largeness of my midsection...or by the comments well meaning people make about how far away my due date is compared to the size of my belly. My favorite is when I get to say, "Nope, there's only one in there."  (Mental note for you all....never ask a pregnant woman if she is having twins.)

wanna get creative?

I normaly ignore the creative bug when it tries to bite me....it's not that I don't like to do crafts...the opposite it true....but, if I can't do something without making a mess or without my kids trying to "help"...then I typically rather not do it. BUT...there's this cool site my friend told me about...and I think I am going to give making a craft a try...mostly because it's super cute, would make a great gift for the Laurels I teach and it looks fairly simple! Check it out!

How CUTE is that!? I think I'll make one for Kaitlyn and Addie too. Let's just hope Wal-Mart has what I need!

Go HERE for step by step instructions on how to recover your BOM...and for further crafting inspiration...click on "great ideas" under 'sites i like' over there in my side bar!

sNoW fUn!

(You're gonna have to double click the picture...unless you have super good eye sight!)

We got more snow last night and more is falling. We had 2 hour late start for school. YAY! Now let's just hope I can pick the kids (we carpool) up from school on time today! Wednesday they had a late start and for some reason it threw me off. I was talking to Angela and totally thought it was around noon. The school beeped in and told me the kids were waiting for me in the office. It was 2:45....and school gets out at 2:20! I felt terrible....and even worse when I had to go into the office in my "lounging clothes" (aka pj's), slippers and a messy pony tail.

Oh! I just answered the door and it's Kaitlyn! School is canceled! WOOHOO!

Click here to read a great post.

is there something wrong with me? i can't leave my blog design alone....and now....after having katie spend her precious time helping me (when you're a mom of 4...time is nothing BUT precious) i got this itch to try to do something myself....and now i sort of am liking my header and it feels good to have figured out how to do it....but it's off center! how do i fix that!?

Our Addie.......

It snowed last night...enough for today to be a "late start" day for school. (hooray for getting to sleep in!). Addie and Weston were out in the snow as soon as they had eaten their breakfast. Now they are inside. Addie is now wearing a skirt, short sleeve shirt and eating a popscicle...barefoot. I wish it were summer too....but I think she's taking it a little bit too far! (sorry no picture to share of that)

Oh...and I have to share with you the little nursery ryhmn (sp?) Adelin made up yesterday. It goes like this:

"Peter Pipper peed his pants and ran away without them."

 The kids thought that was the most hilarious thing EVER! :) Okay...and I laughed too.

P.S. (did you notice that we have 16 (hopefully less) weeks until our little guy will be born!? That's getting close!)

I made some blog design changes (if you can call what I did a design....) I am not really digging it......don't like the flowers on the side...or the colors of the texts........anyone have any sites besides 'cutest blog on the block" that you like that are user friendly???? Also....I'd like my whole page to move together when you scroll....not just the middle like it does. What template should I use in blogger to do that? I'd just like my blog to be a simple background and cute header...something that I can change like once every 2 years!
Thanks Katie for helping me with my layout! :)

Oh Weston...

Weston told me the other day that he wants "Caillou, Rosie and the mommy and daddy to come out of the show and play with him." (Caillou is his favorite tv show) Poor kid. Today he was talking about Caillou again and I told him that we need to get him some real friends. Katilyn...the sweet sister that she is (or sometimes can be) told him that she'd be his friend and he told her in a pathetic little voice, "I want some real friends".

How sad....but how cute.

{Elder Bednar}

"As disciples of the Savior, we are not merely striving to know more; rather, we need to consistently do more of what we know is right and become better." (italics added)

Kaitlyn Humor

The girls went with me to a baby shower for a lady in our ward. It was at Aunt Nerita's house. Anyhow....I was sitting on the step going into the family room (the step over by the organ for those of you familiar with the house), Aunt Nerita was sitting by me, Kaitlyn was playing with a balloon behind us and Adelin was playing with the globe that is be the fire place. Aunt Nerita told me that sometimes kids get their fingers pinched on the globe so I called Addie over to tell her to be careful. Kaitlyn, having overheard me talking to Addie said, "You just got a global warning Addie".

Clever child...she has her daddy's sense of humor! :)

Your attitude as a lot to do with what your exceptations are....and that can make life a little tricky because really?....who knows what to expect half the time!

this old house.....

I feel claustraphobic (sp?) today.

We've lived in this house for 4 years, 1 month and about 10 days. That's a good 2 years, 1 month and 10 days longer than we had planned. This was just supposed to be a house we bought to live in while we built a house so that we didn't have to rent....my how plans change! I cried all night long the first time I stepped foot into this house. I had never seen it before, was 8 months pregnant and had just left a beautiful brand new house behind. This old, dirty and grossly painted place was a major MAJOR shock to my system. I still don't know if I have fully recovered. It's taken a lot of work (time, money, sweat, blood (seriously) and tears) to make this place feel like home...and we still have a long list of things we need to do. After Adelin was born, I swore that I would not have another child while living in this house...but...that didn't happen! We're busting out of the seams! There's no place to go for peace and quiet...we're right on top of eachother all the time. Don't get me wrong....I am greatful for the warmth and protection this house has provided us and we've been blessed with the means to make a lot of changes and we have a low mortgage. Most days I am able to count my blessings and look for the good...but some days....like today....I feel like the walls are squeezing my guts out along with every ounce of sanity I possess. The thought of living here for another year makes me want to cry. We're looking to buy a new house....but realisticly that may not happen until the end of the year. So........I am just whining........

P.S. I found this picture that was taken just a few months after we moved here!

Also, this is what are kitchen used to look like...I still don't think I have taken pictures since it got remodeled...

It wasn't the most terrible kitchen...but when they found an old dead mouse and nest behind the cabinets that they removed...I was GLAD to endure a kitchen remodel!

I stole this from my SUPER smart sister in law (Amy's) blog!

If you follow these steps then you will be able to reply directly to those who comment on your posts! You know how you get an email with their comment...if you follow these steps, you can just click "reply" from your inbox! Isn't that great!? I am going to leave myself a comment to test it out...just to make sure I did it correctly.

Step One: Open your profile page, click EDIT Profile on left side of profile.

(If you need help finding your profile page let me know).


Step Two: make sure the box marked show my profile and show my email address are checked.


Step Three: Under Identity, add the email address you want comment replies to be sent.


Step Four: scroll to bottom and click save!

FYI: This will only work if the person you are responding to has also changed their settings making so that they can respond to emails also.

P.S. Guess what people! It WORKED! :) Thanks Amy for being so smart and also for sharing the info!

Ugh...this is reminding me too much of when I kept a journal...a real one...and I'd force myself to write even when I was not wanting to or didn't think I had anything to write about.

When I was a 'kid'. I kept a diary.I spelt words wrong and talked about silly crushes I had on boys. I kept it locked. My brothers read it. My Grandma Barrett bought it for me at Pic-N-Save. I still have it. It's gray with little pink hearts. She bought my cousin Natalie one at the same time. I am pretty sure hers was pink with gray heart. I just had a couple of years under my belt as far as being in school goes. My Grandma passed away when I was 9 years old. I should dig it out and share some entries with you. Maybe someday....when I am not feeling so lazy. Then there's the journal my moms best friend Dolly gave to me when I was baptized. It is sheets of paper in a folder. The pages have cute pictures on them and little writing promps. I filled that one up too....mostly with misspelt words and thoughts about how big of meanies my brothers were. Then I bought a pretty little notebook one time while we were here in Arizona on a family vacation. It snaps shut and has pictures of cherubs on it I think. That one was from my Jr. High years and probably has some pretty comical entries that were very serious at the time. I remember ranting about my mom and how "she just doesn't understand"...and there might be an entry or two about a certain sister of mine who I thought was pesky! (love ya Tiff) I filled that one and moved on to a medium sized blue on sometime in High School. I've had serious thoughts about burning that journal. Too many silly teenager drama entries I think...although I haven't looked at it in years. Who knows...maybe it's full of nothing but my beautifuly worded, delightful insights on life. (ha) I don't know that I filled this one. I know I talked about meeting Brandon and going on some dates...then I stopped with that journal. After that, I started keeping a journal for Kaitlyn, then Adelin, then Weston which I have written in less and less since starting this blog. I emailed a weekly letter to family and friends for a long while, but I stopped that when I started blogging too!  But, like I have said a bazillion times, this is my journal. Sometimes that fact shoots me in the foot because I will keep secrets from my blog...stuff I don't want people to know yet. For that, I have Kristin and Angela whom I tell everything to wheter they like it or not. I should print my emails to them as a journal...that would probably be a more truthful record....but don't worry ladies, I am far too lazy for that. Anyhow...I don't know what my point is. I just thought I better blog and this is what's comin' out! I love that about blogging too. I like to sit and type and see what comes of it. I delete a lot of entries. I had one typed about me finding out that I was pregnant and all those details. Did you know that I took 5 pregnancy tests? 4 from the dollar store. (I lied to the cashier and told her that they were for a gag gift....she is my friends mother in law and I didn't want any rumors to start. She said, "You've had enough kids, you don't need one of these to know if you're pregnant or not". Wrong-O!) Some of those tests turned positive and one didn't give any lines, so I bought one at Wal-Mart (not too much further up the list of creditable places to buy pregnancy tests)...but that's the one that convinced me....along with all the blood work that I had done over the next week. I started on progesterone and took that nasty stuff until I was 13 weeks along....I was 14 weeks according to my ultrasound...and it freaked me out a little to stop taking it a week sooner than I thought I should....but that just goes to show that freaking out does ya no good! (remind me of that later okay?)

Maybe I should do an update on the family.

We had a good Christmas. Brandon and I were totaly sleep deprived. By Christmas morning, I had gotten about 6 hours of sleep over the past 48 hours. I was so tired. We had a great morning here at home with the kids loving every mintue of it! Then went over to Brandon's moms house for a while, then came home because we planned to drive down to Mesa that day. I took a shower and then was doing my hair so that I could try out the new straightener that Santa brought me...and while I was doing that....two of my little darlings (names starting with "A" and "W") decided to play with play dough. From the report we were given on the incident, Weston stayed at the table, but Addie ground it into the carpet...then decided to do her 'paint by number' on our new couch! Red paint and play dough...it was not a pretty sight. That was enough to get me sent to take a nap by Brandon. I was in tears. We didn't go to Mesa that day. But, I did get a nap and I ended up having a nice long talk on the phone with my Grandpa Newbold. He's good at putting life back into it's proper perspective. Brandon cleaned up the mess our dear sweet child made and I was able to get the rest of the house cleaned up and that made me feel human again! We drove to Mesa on Saturday stopping in Payson to eat, Addie threw up there...but acted fine. Then we went to my parents house. They watched the kids that night while we went out to dinner with Angela and Kevin who were down from Texas for the holidays. That was fun!...but I over ate badly at the Cheesecake Factory. We walked the mall then went to look for a new vaccum for my mom. Hers broke...and for her....a vaccum is like a ventilator...using it keeps her alive! :) We stayed at Brandon's moms place there in Mesa. Sunday, we went to church with my parents and had dinner at their house...my mom made Chicken Devon...which is my all time favorite. Brandon and I also went over to visit Eric, Kim and Cooper. He's so cute! I held him for a good hour. He reminded me what newborn poo looks like when I changed his poopy diaper! I am terrible and didn't even take my camera (for pictures of him...not the poo) but it was fun to meet him and to visit with Kim and Eric. That was Sunday...and in the middle of the night, I awoke to the sound of Adelin throwing up. It was awful. Brandon ended up going to buy medicine at around 3 a.m. It seemed to help and she slept until 8 a.m. then she woke up and got dressed like she was feeling fine. Then we realized she was still sick when she couldn't stay off the toilet for more than 3 minutes. (sorry for the details...but that's the best way I could think to put it) Poor girl. We got her some childrens Imodium AD, she took a nap and then she was fine. She was eating a corn dog by lunch time. We still didn't know if she was better or not.....so we stayed another night in Mesa then drove home Tuesday. By Wednsday, Brandon and I both felt pretty bad with coughs and sore throats and messed up sinusis. Brandon came home from work early and we took turns taking naps. Thursday morning Brandon woke up and still felt bad, so he stayed home from work which turned out to be a real blessing because I got the stomach flu and couldn't keep anything down all day. Bradon felt good enough by night time to take the kids to his mom's house for the party she was having there. I stayed home and waited for my mom, dad and aunt deanna to come. Oh...and I read my book. Then, my dad called to say they were in Heber (1/2 hour away) and I thought I better go see what the house looked like since I had only been out of bed for a hour that day. It was sort of messy and so I forced myself to clean up. I felt like I did when I was a kid and knew my mom would be home so I'd hurry and clean up the house. She's where I got my "clean gene". She didn't like to come home to a messy house and neither do I. Messes are hard for me....they make we cranky...I try to not let them....ask Brandon, I have gotten better about that since we got married. Having kids makes it impossible to have a clean house all of the time...so I have been forced to ignore things but I can only handle it for so long. Anyhow. I knew my mom would start cleaning the second she came in the door if I didn't have it done already. We didn't have too exciting of a New Years Eve. We watched TV and went to bed late. Then Friday I went ahead and didn't stop my mom and Aunt Deanna from doing my laundry. I still felt weak from being sick, but thank goodness was able to eat and drink....that's my excuse for not stopping them. :) Saturday I was feeling even better and my mom, Aunt Deanna and I went to a store in town that is closing down. We bought some cute material for the babys quilt. (My mom makes quilts for her grand-babies...my Great Aunt Deanna makes quilts for all the babies too...in fact, I think she made me two for Weston!) Anyhow...it's super cute material with little cowboys and horses on one of the materials and then the other has covered wagons, cowboys and cactus (or should I say, "cacti"). My mom still has some material left over from Weston's quilt, so she will use some of that along with what we bought. It's gonna be cute!

Okay...so I think that's enough typing for now. I will check my spelling later...maybe.

 School starts again tomorrow (groan) and so I better go so we can get Miss Kaitlyn to bed!

P.S. If you read this whole post...then bless your heart...and mine because it means you really DO love me!