A real family picture... FINALLY

The girls
Don't Ask

Shawn and I

Our First family picture in 3 Years.

The military had their Christmas party today and they had a Photographer volunteer to come do familly photos for $10. I was so excited. I love the generosity of people. He gave a speech about how it was the least he could do. He knows it is hard for those in the service to get time/money for family photos so it is what he can give back. I am so glad that they turned out good. We have a release so we can do what we want with them. I am trying to give back to other military families. It's amazing what little things can do for people.

The other day I was getting a drink at the drive up window here in town. I was very grumpy (going to get caffeine) cussin' money and the military. When I went to pay the lady behind me yelled up to the guy and said" Let me pay for her drink." I yelled back thank you and she said "No thank you." It was then that it dawned on me that she had read my stickers on my window. (I love my Soldier and Military wife) She made my day. When I am angry at the military because they don't take care of their people and I think it's not worth it people like her remind me that my husband does it for Americans not politicians. I am so proud of him. And I am so thankful I have him in my life. He is such a wonderful person, and amazing husband, and the best father to all of our children. I just hope someday I can repay him for all that he does. And I hope someday he realizes just how amazing and inspiring he is. Anyone that read this that can, buy a soldier a drink. You may just be his hero for a little bit!!

I just got the pictures back from Molly's blessing about 2 week ago and I have to share how beautiful she is. This is from August so she has a lot more hair now (which looks strawberry blonde. Fingers crossed). Sometime I am amazed at how gorgeous my girls have turned out. I guess that is why I keep having girls so that their are beauties for the boys to marry. We call Molly Shawn's mini me because they look so much a like. Strange to think that she could be so cute. She loves her dad so much. This weekend he had drill out at Lakeside, which is on the backside of the Great Salt Lake, so he was gone all weekend. When he walked in the door she got so excited swinging her arms and saying Da Da. Then she started to do her fake cry face until he picked her up. I have been trying to get a picture of that face, but she is not very willing. To give you an idea she puckers out her lips, sucks the top lip to her nose and wrinkles her forehead. It looks a lot like an orangutan. Her first tooth broke through on Sunday. 9 1/2 months old. Time flies.

P.s. I am not the one that put the cow for Karolyn's picture. She did. If she's a cow I guess I'm a bison.

A whole lotta fun

What do you get when you have 2 bored house wifes, Some sheers, and a big nappy cat. A whole lota fun. This is what Karolyn and I do for entertainment. Willy was not so happy about it. He hates Karolyn anyways so this just pushed him over the top. He is much thinner now. And for those of you who think shaving a cat would be easy, think again. I had on a leather welding apron, and leather gloves. At one point I had to cover his mouth with a glove to keep him from biting. Don't worry no animals were hurt in the process of entertainment. His extremely fat body also pose some problems. We knew he was fat, just didn't realize he was that fat. He had little cat boobies hanging under his armpits. In the end he is happier not getting bald spots where his mats get caught on things, and I am happier not have little Willy baby hairballs left all over my carpet. Karolyn was just happy she got to irritate him.

32 hours and counting

Oh yeah! It is that wonderful time of year again. Only 32 hours and counting until opening kick off for the 2008 football season. Even though I will have to watch my Boyfriend play in a different jersey and state this year and cheering for my usual team to fall on their face so their General manager will be fired, It is still been a very long off season. I am Packers fan, but think that egos need to be destroyed. Shawn conveniently scheduled his foot proceder for Thursday. Swears it has nothing to do with opening day, but I know better. I can't blame him. I have a special interest group of making cards on Thursday I am looking to set a record time for making them to get home.

Things have been crazy around our house. Shawn isn't sure if his orders will be cut for one more year, so we are preparing for the worse. I have been looking for a part time job, and so has he. I had Mastitus again a couple of weeks ago, which left my underarm on that side very sore and hard to use. I was so excited for it to be better so I could remodel our closets. After getting Autumn's and Morgan's done (which looks like a small clothing store) I was putting their hats up on the top shelf when the chair slid out from under me and I slammed that arm on top of their shelves. Needless to say it is pretty much useless again. Home repair has been kicking my butt.

Molly has started to crawl, so we have had to install gates all around the house. She is destructive. Here favorite pastime is destroying the garbage cans in the bathrooms.

Ashtyn has had a bout of horrible language again and no soap, cheyenne pepper, or tabasco sauce seems to cure it. It is getting better and she yells at me for saying stupid or hate. Those I can handle, but her word of chose has been A-hole. She knows it's naughty because she only says it if she thinks I am out of earshot. What do you do?

Morgan started Kindergarten and is loving it. She isn't even bothered by the fact that everyone is at least 5 inches taller.

Autumn has made new friends at her new school. Thank Goodness. She has been sick over it all summer. One little boy, Tucker, lives right over the fence so they don't even have to leave the yard to go play. They just hop the fence. I am all ready friends with his mom and his dad is the one that fixed our water heater when we first moved in.

Gizmo is fully recovered and is being naughty again. Today he sat in the middle of the road and jogged toward a car. Gee I wonder why he got run over.

Willy is now up to 17.5 ponds and has taken to sleeping in Molly's bed since she doesn't use it. When I go in to shoo him out he just looks at me like " What are you gonna do about it?"

We have a new little addition to the family. Popcorn is our little white kitten. He was cast aside from Karolyn for said Dog on her blog!! Hee Hee!! We are glad. If he survives Ashtyn he is going to be a beautiful cat. He makes a great playmate for the Giz.

I think that sums up the last little bit of our lifes.

31 and 1/2 hours to go!!!!!!!

Morgan's day

Last Wedsnday was my baby girl Morgan's 5th birthday. I can't believe she is all ready five . I was going to post a picture from one of her past birthday's on here, but apparently I am a bad mom and have none. My camera always seems to go dead and I have to rely on friends. Her party was a princess party and was based completely around her cake. She told me last year that this was the cake she wanted on her 5th birthday. Her party was a lot of fun. We had a friends party in the morning and a family party in the evening. She made a haul. She got $80 worth of money and build a bear gift certificates. That is our newest obsession.

On Friday Shawn and I took her to the mall to cash in on her build a bear. She had so much fun shopping and getting to buy so much stuff. Then Shawn took her into the arcade for their Daddy daughter time. She was skipping holding his hand down the hallway. I meanwhile wondered into Gymboree. Bad idea!!!! I have been only shopping at yardsales this summer as promised to my husband, but I fell off the wagon hard in Gymboree. anyways.... Morgan was so excited to have all the attention on her. It felt so great to take her out and see that she felt so special. And now she has the whole line of the Gymboree Cherries!!!

I miss the cabin

We have been home about 3 weeks now and I really miss the cabin. I miss the relaxed feeling down there. When you can look out your kitchen window and see this every evening.. you can't go wrong.

Autumn loved it there. She got to be outside all day playing in the dirt, exploring and digger. More than anything digging. This is what the hole looked like on the first day:

This is the day we left:

Autumn dug that all by herself. The other older girls were to prissy to get dirty, but Autumn was determined to create herself a little fortress or whatever it was in her head. Have you ever seen the movie Bridge to Tarabithia? I imagine that is what it is like to be in Autumn's head. Where everyone else sees a pile of dirt, she sees her own magical world waiting to be created. Maybe that is why she is so content with playing by herself because she is surrounded by the characters that she imagines. I would love to be that way again!!!!!

Morgan was so proud that she caught her first fish all by herself. She had to make sure that we got pictures with them. She is so determined to be big that she has to prove she is just as good as the older girls. She caught more fish that Shawn's sister and cousin. (Autumn didn't go because she was digging her hole) And Grandpa would much rather take Morgan, I think, because she doesn't complain after 20 minutes. She is in it for the long haul.

Ashtyn took her first real boat ride. She thought it was pretty cool until we would turn. She would get a little nervous, but when Grandpa turned the boat to go over the wake so it would be bumpy she started cracking up. She would tell him "go faster!"

We have so much fun when we are there. We actually get time as a family. And my girls get to see what it is like to run around care free. That is what makes me the most angry about the people putting a huge resort. Right now there is hardly anyone down by where the cabin is located, but the new owners are crating 110 pads for little prefab cabins to go in. 110 on about 6 acres. Our cabin will basically be surrounded so they will have to have someone watching them at all times. People will ruin anything if it will make them a quick, but. I wish they would think about the cost not in $ !!!! Well I guess we will enjoy it while we can. We will make another trip in August and I am counting down to it.

Speaking of counting down.. just in case anyone was wondering just over a month before football events begin!!!! Yeah!!!!! Go Packers!!!!!

The all mighty Giz

I am amazed at the strength of my pocket sized dog. I always tease that some day I want a real dog. He is the toughest dog I have ever seen. Last Saturday we had fireworks by our house and Gizmo ran away. After searching for 2 hour someone called that had found him. We were relieved until we went to pick him up. He had been hit by a car and had broken his front left leg and his back left hip. I was feeling both legs and not one did he whimper or cry. We took him to the pet ER in Orem and he did not make a sound the whole time they examined him. They did his xrays and told us it would be about $1500 per leg to fix, and that they would probably have to remove the front one. We told him we wanted to take him to his regular vet so they took him in the back room to bandage him and he began to bawl like a baby because he could not see us. I was so upset all weekend thinking I was going to have to put him down. This perfectly healthy happy wonderful dog, just because we couldn't afford to fix his legs.

Sunday was fathers day so we went to my dads house. Even with two broken legs he was picking a fight with my dad's dog tramp. Talking crap like he always does and beating him with his cast. Which made me feel even more guilt. There was no way I could make this decision. So Monday morning we took him into our regular vet, waiting to hear the bad news, that they would at least have to remove his leg and for a dog that run circles around anything that stands still as fast as he can, this would be torture.

Our vet took one look at the xrays, one look at the bill from the ER and said "what jerks!" Come to find out, there was no reason to remove the leg and the 2 exact same surgeries the other vet said would cost $3000 total ended up being $300. Less than the ER visit. I hate money driven people.

So he had his first surgery last Tuesday and has been a little depressed, so tonight I took him to my dad's house with me to see Kathy, Brook, Summer and children. He was playing with tramp a little, but still acting a little sad. Right before we were going to leave I started picking on tramp making him bark and snap at me, and Gizmo wasn't having it. He got over there talking his crap and doing his little dance. I about cried. I was so scared he wouldn't be able to dance again.

For those of you who haven't seen Gizmo talk I will explain that it is not barking. He sits and makes the weirdest sounds and even says mama every once in a while. His little dance he gets on his hind legs and puts his front paws in the air and shakes them back and forth.

I am not one of those crazy people that goes on and on about their dog, but I had to face how much I actually love the little mutt and that he does bring happiness in my life. I am so thankful he survived and that my kids still have their dog. He may walk with a little limp from now on, but that just adds to his tough dog image along with his Mohawk and goatee.

Home at last

I have had a wonderful 10 day vacation at the cabin on the lake, but it is so good to be home. Even though my cat apparently was traumatized by us being gone. When Karolyn stopped by to drop off Gizmo, Willy (the cat) had torn down the curtain and had apparently been losing his hair all over my house. So much for coming home to a clean house. It was great to have Shawn's grandparent see Ashtyn full scale in her devilishness. They always say we are telling stories about her. I don't think we will ever hear that again. It was a full house with 6 girls and four adults. (Shawn's cousin and little sister were there) All in all it was a good week. Shawn and I celebrated our 2ND anniversary on June 2ND. We drove down into Panguitch to Henry's drive in for our dinner and went to the grocery store. Very exciting, but with the way our life is any time together, much less alone is special. Henry's drive in has some questionable shirts for their employees. Their hamburgers are called Chubby's, so the shirt said "have you had your Chubby today?" I nearly died laughing in the car. Our gift to each other this year is a new fence. Not exciting, but we have the habit of buying whatever we think the other one would like whenever we feel like it. Not a good habit, but it makes holidays more practical. I guess!!! I will have to post pictures and vent about what the new owners of the resort down the street are doing to the landscape later. For now I need to get up stairs and watch water horse with my husband.

I miss my sister

Yesterday Karolyn flew out to Wisconsin/Michigan to be there for our friends baby's funeral. Her 3 year old son drown in their pool on Thursday. I feel so horrible for her. It seem that misfortune follows this family. When she was her a few weeks ago she was so incredibly happy.
And I am at a loss of what to say to her, because I am the person that makes people laugh and I know that it is completely inappropriate right now. I haven't called her yet because of this reason and I ask Karolyn to explain that to her and let her know I would call her in a week or so.

I know that Karolyn has only been gone for little while, but knowing she will be gone a week is making me crazy. She promised to call everyday and she has so far. She called me from the airport and that is how I found out that she was going. When she told me she was flying into Green Bay (the home of the all mighty Packers) I about had a breakdown. I asked her to go to Lambough field and lick the grass where I boyfriend (Brett Favre) had stood so many times and thrown touchdowns. She called me from stadium today to tell me that it was off season and she could not get in. But asked me if she should get me a Cheese head hat. Little did she know that is the one Football apparel I have been after for many years, but wanted to be authentic. It looks like this year I will celebrate my team in high fashion. I am so glad that I have a sister/best friend that loves me enough to take time to go there for me. Especially since she could give a crap about football. I miss her so much. We may be too co-dependent as most people say, but I wouldn't have it any other way!!!!!

Southern Woman

Last night a member from our ward stop by with the missionaries, because we were outback. We were just chatting away talking about how things were going. I have a very helpful ward that is very aware about Shawn's work schedule and I guess they all wantt to make sure I am coping all right. His wife is expecting their first in July and he was asking how I like staying home all the time. I told him I love it, but he needed to make sure she got some breaks. He asked how I was feeling physically from having her and also because he knew I had Mastitus a few weeks ago (he happened to come by when my fever was around 105 and got a glimpse of how sick it makes you) I told him I had southern jeans so I give birth and could be cooking a few hours later. It's just what you do. He laughed, because he haddened heard that before.

I am so thankful I was raised to be as tough as I am. After listening to the whining of someone who recently had a baby the size Autumn and was wanting me to pity her (she's 27), I said "that was the baby I gave birth to at 17." She stopped complaining to me. I think that I just get really sick of hearing woe is me from all these woman that just need to buck up and take care of themselves. My dad told me the other dad that Grandma would be proud of me. He didn't go into specifics why, but none the less I felt very proud. If Grandma would be proud I guess I'm not doing too bad.

Real American

Friday night Shawn and I finally got to go out alone. It's been about 2 months since the last time. He had just gotten home from drill and we wanted to hurry so we could watch the Jazz game. So we left as soon as my mom and dad got there to babysit. We were sitting at dinner and I realized this couple that I went to school with (that I really dislike) were next to us again. Last time we went out they were two tables over. We were laughing making jokes about them following us. This was a new Mongolian place we hadn't tried yet and I started telling Shawn they were going to poison our food because he was still in his uniform. We get very mixed reactions when he goes out in uniform. Sometimes we get thank you's and sometimes very hateful reactions. We have even been flipped off. We have a couple of friends that are liberals that I have went toe to toe with because they challenge our lifes and say we are supporting a terrorist because my husband serves our president. Anyways when we were finished the waitress brought back our card and said that someone had already taken care of it and said to tell us thank you for all our sacrifice. I was about in tears. It put Shawn in an instant good mood. That is what I call a real American. Anyone can sit and complain about the war, the president and the soldiers protecting their right to say such ludicrous things, but it takes a big person to just say thank you. I wish I knew who it was so I could say thank you, but they weren't going for the glory. It's people like them that make all the pains and time apart worth it. I love my husband and am so proud of him and thankful for him, but I think sometimes it takes a stranger saying the same things to make it sink in. He was on cloud nine that night and nothing is worth more to me than that.

I learned how to post pictures

Yeah!! I finally learned how to post pictures. I don't have any flattering ones of me, but dang I have a beautiful family.

Insomnia

So I really need Shawn to go back to working dayshift. I just can not sleep with him gone. It is amazing the things you can do at night. I just finished making 7 baby bracelets for all my friends that have girls and for Autumn and Morgan's other sister Oakley for her birthday. I made 15 bows for hair clips, but can not finish them because Karolyn has the crate of bow supplies at her house. The other night we were up till 4 am making flower clips. When all was said and done we had enough to cover Ashtyn's whole head. Not one ounce of hair was showing. We get a little obsessed sometimes. If anyone needs lace for baby headbands let me know. I have 700 yards of offwhite. It is a little eery not having a child screaming. I was watching the NFL draft that I had recorded on my DVR, but the more I think about it, the more I feel in limbo about what team I am going to cheer for. With Brett Favre (my boyfriend) retiring I relized that I had been loyal to a player not a team for 13 years. There is that small hope he will come to his scenses and come back. I will still cheer for the Green and Yellow this years. I am a cheese head at heart. Plus I have almost all the girls programmed to say Packers rule and Cowboys suck. Cowboys being Shawn's team. August better get here fast because the NBA playoffs barely equal a preseason NFL game in excitement for me!!!!

Count your blessings

I am so thankful for my Oldest, Autumn. She is such a good girl. The other night after another explosive tantrum from Morgan at Karolyn's house, and her talking down to me at my friend Debbie's house I had had enough. When I was trying to get in the door with Molly when we got home I tripped, hit the step with my knee, and blood got all over my favorite pants. I sent the girls to get PJs on and brush their teeth. When I went down stairs 10 minutes later Morgan was sitting on her bed clothes on and teeth not brush. I screamed went up stairs and bawled. Not silently weeping. Bawled like a baby. Autumn was so concerned. She got Morgan in bed. Changed Ashtyn's diaper and put on her pajamas. When Molly woke up in her carseat Autumn got her out, changed her and brought her to me to feed. She gave me a huge hug and told me I was a good mom. She just knows what I needed to hear. She went and got me a water bottle from the fridge, because she knows I get thirsty when I am nursing Molly. I have felt better since my little emotional breakdown. I hate that Autumn has to take on stuff like that, but I know that she likes to. The next day she got them all ready for bed again. I wonder sometime if she knows how much she has saved me so many times in my life. I am so thankful for my children and everything they do for me. They drive me to be better everyday. I am usually the one that masks any emotion with comedy and laughter, but feel that today I need to share my other side. It won't happen often, but somehow letting everyone else know how much I appreciate Autumn makes me feel better since she is a lot like me and just blows emotions off. She is my minny me. I will have to tell about "CREATING" one of these days!!!

Just started blogging

So Karolyn has talked me into blogging, but I am not quite sure how to make mine all pretty like everyone elses. I just think it is a great idea because I love to know what is going on in everyones lifes. It also let's me know what is going on outside my hermit shell (home). Four children... four girls...four raging balls of estrogen that threaten to blow at any minute make it a little discouraging to go anywhere. I love my children, but sometimes wonder if we will all survive raising them. Hopefully I will figure out how to get pictures on here for all to see.