Crush

So I have had something happen to me this week that has made me go back in time to my childhood and remember what it was like to have a complete crush. Last Saturday night while driving in our car as a family, Eric announced that he was in love with a girl named Bailey from his school. He also said that another part of his secret was that he wanted to marry her. Ryan and I first reacted with stifled giggles, because it was so cute, but then it quickly turned into, "Oh crap, my kids only 7!" It scared me quite a bit because I don't remember having a real crush until 6th grade. His name was JR and I remember it being quite intense, and this is what scared me. (Which by the way Carly, thanks for that trip down memory lane with the blog link!)

Well, I kind of dismissed the thought of it until the next day. On Sunday during primary the leader was talking about things that we can give for Christmas this year to others that don't cost any money. The kids were to write what they were going to give and then tell the primary and put it on a Christmas tree as an ornament. It gets to be Eric's turn and he gets up to tell the primary that he is going to make cookies for Bailey. So tender and cute, but again, he is only 7. I didn't think that boys got crushes this soon, and it made him so big in my eyes. Later that night we had a discussion, he told us that his last secret was that he wanted to be Bailey's boyfriend, and then we told him that the prophets have told us not to date until we are 16 and we made him count out the number of years until that date. Thankfully there is 9 more to go, but if this keeps up we may be in big trouble.

My fears were once again resolved when Ryan told me that night that his first crush was when he was 7 also. He remembered first and last names of the girl, I felt so much better knowing this because Ryan was such a perfect child. I guess now I can say one more time, Eric is just like his father.

I think that I need to calm down and realize that this is a part of childhood and enjoy the fact that Eric is sharing with me. I can't believe how old he is getting. It goes by way too fast.

A Tender Mercy

I have a fetish, I collect something, and this also is something I inherited from my mother. At Christmas time I open a few bins that hold some of my favorite possessions. My Nativities. I carefully unpack each one and place them on the shelves, all while listening to my favorite Christmas carols. This past Thursday, I was doing such a task and had my favorite song on, "O Holy Night". I had unpacked all 17 sets, but not set them up yet, when I asked Tyler to go get the mail. He came back with a box postmarked to me. I recognized the handwriting immediately and couldn't wait to open it. It was a package from my dear friend Jodi. As soon as I had cut the tape, tears began flowing. Her family had just returned from Ethiopia, where they adopted their little boy Jacob. And inside the box was a beautifully crafted nativity from where they had just been. My boys didn't understand why I was crying, and I guess all I could say was, "I just miss Jodi."
Heavenly Father had sent me a tender mercy to remind me that I am not alone, and that someone is aware of me. He gave me a friend that knows what I love, and then had her send it in the mail to arrive at the perfect time to find the best place for it. It was such a simple act, yet every time I look at it I am reminded of the incredible friendship that I have with her, and the love that Heavenly Father has for me. He sent me a gift too. His Son.
It is so wonderful that we can be reminded, at the perfect time for each of us, that we are not alone.

Festival of Trees

So it is now time to post about what my focus has been for this year. It is Festival time again!!!

For those of you that don't know, Festival of Trees is a charity that gives 100% of everything raised to Primary Children's Medical Center. Last year it was able to raise a new record of 1.6 million. This is all because of people that are willing to donate their time, money, and projects to help the children that are in need at the hospital. It runs the Wednesday through Saturday after Thanksgiving every year, and this year it is December 3rd through the 6th. It is open from 10 am to 10 pm every day and holds things for every member the family. There are over 600 trees, centerpieces, gingerbread, and wreaths that are up for auction. A gift boutique, sweet shop (with homemade candy and fudge), scones, sweet rolls, a children's area called Kids Corner, Photos with Santa, and of course Entertainment to top it all off. There are two stages that run groups every 1/2 hour and foyer performances on a grand piano throughout the day and evening.
This year I am the Chair of Entertainment, and it has been fun and stressful at the same time. I have been busy trying to schedule and keep track of over 160 performance groups, and maintain the responsibilities of a committee also. I really love this area and don't really ever want to be anywhere else.
If you have never been or go every year, I suggest you make it a point to go down to South Towne Expo Center and bring in the Christmas season with a bang. Your money will all go to the children at the hospital, and you will get into the grove of the season. It is a great way to bring in Christmas.

Baby Update

I think that she looks like her daddy. You can tell that she has attached ears, and her mouth and nose area look lots like Ryan. He can't see it yet, and it will remain to be seen if that's how she comes out, but it makes me happy to see him in her.

I went in for my targeted ultra-sound today and everything looks great with our little one. She is about 1 lb 2 oz and growing perfectly. So far there is nothing dramatic happening with my cervix, so that keeps me off strict bed-rest for the time. I am trying to take it easy however, but my husband doesn't think so because I hauled three bins out of the attic so that I could decorate for Christmas. I think that I am totally taking it easy because if I wasn't, I would have brought down the other five.

The Crazy Christmas Lady

So yes, this is my title. I have now succeeded in putting up my Christmas trees with only the kids ornaments to go. My basement is decorated in Santa's and Snowmen and the upstairs soon to be decked out with all my nativities. What can I say....I love Christmas!!!!!!!!! In fact, more than the actual day of Christmas, I love the season of Christmas. The sounds have already found a place in my CD player, and my children are busy filling out their lists. What a joyous time to celebrate such a incredible miracle. I love just about everything about it. The sounds, the lights, the smells, the gift wrapping, the family get-togethers, the children's anticipation, the spirit of giving, the sense that Christ is near, everything. It takes just about all of my control to keep myself from totally skipping Halloween and jumping right into the red and gold that I love to decorate in. So yes, I am the crazy Christmas lady, who gets it from her mother, and I will soon be posting photos of my kids handiwork at the tree.

This is Important!

Alright everyone, here is the important news. We are all so blessed to be a United States citizen where we have the right and I feel duty to make our voices heard. So GO VOTE! You can not complain about what is going to happen if you don't take the initiative and vote. So stop blogging and get out there and get your cute maroon sticker and then wear it loud and proud that you did something that many people in the world only can dream about.

GO VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Ryan and I decided that the boys designs were way better than ours. They drew on their pumpkins what they wanted and then we carved them for them. Left to Right: Tyler, Ryan, Me, Eric.

We kind of had a theme this year. My kids were so dang cute in their costumes! Tyler would limp along with his cane just like Yoda and Rylee wore here "cinnabun" hairpiece all night to be Princess Leia. Eric was the man with the force, Luke Skywaker.

Rylee totally got into Halloween this year, she thought it was great that all she had to do was hold out her bucket and smile and people would give her treats. She got a few extra at almost every house.

Eric is smiling funny because he is showing that he is missing three teeth and looks like a pumpkin. Fun for him that on Monday it is school photo day!

Lazy or Busy?

So I can't decide if I should call myself lazy or busy because I haven't posted on this blog for so long. So I think that I will call it both. It is amazing what happens to you when you have three kids and are preggo with number four. It is like my body is rebelling against me and screaming at me that I am getting older. It does not help that five weeks ago I was banned from exercising, so the only way that I know how to get any energy is to go to bed at 9:30 pm and drink Diet Coke. Which every time I pick one of those yummy soul drinks, my husband thinks that I am poisoning our child. I told him that I would give them up when he gave up candy, we both looked at each other, laughed, and decided it was better the way it is. So I guess there has been some lazy things going on with me.
Now to the busy part, my kids are both in different schools, which I have to cart around 2-3 times a day just to take and get them. Eric is in a charter school, and I volunteer at his school every week, and am part of the Halloween parties for both the boys. I also was crazy enough to not want to spend $200 on costumes for Halloween this year, so I sewed them. I am the music leader in primary and we just had our program yesterday (which went fantastic). And on top of that I am the Entertainment Chair for Festival of Trees and you wouldn't believe how much time that I have had to put into that already. This is just cracking the surface.
Before you feel bad for my crazy schedule, notice that most of the items are self-inflicted, so you can't feel that sorry for me. I am beginning to look into the future of next year and know that I have to slim down on some things. I mean 4 kids. I am an old mom with a big family. Time to start saying no.

Look!

Okay, so I'm in too. Want to know what for? Click http://www.handbagplanet.com/

What Species is it?

Okay, so I know that I have probably been the world's worst blogger for the last month, and I am sorry. In the coming days I will try to post some photos and thoughts about what has been happening in our neck of the woods, but for tonight this is all that will be coming.
The title of my post has to do with something that my Grandpa said to me two Christmas's ago. I was pregnant with Rylee and we were at a Holiday dinner. Before we left, my grandpa said to everyone that, "all who were pregnant would have to let him know what species their child was when they found out." Of course we all started chuckling because he had said species instead of sex. He had no idea what mistake he had said, but it became something cute to remember when I think of him.
So to continue with the story...The first of July Ryan and I were planning on going up to Island Park with our family for a vacation. A few days prior to this I started not sleeping very well and generally feeling kind of blah. Well I was awake at 3 am the morning that we were supposed to leave and knew that I couldn't wait any longer, I had to have a question answered. So I grabbed the truck keys (It was hitched to a trailer and I had never pulled anything before, but I figured 3 am was a pretty good time to learn.) snuck out of my house, and high-tailed it to Walmart. There I purchased an amazing piece of science. A pee-stick.
Yep, it had two lines. But then one disappeared, so I didn't say anything to Ryan yet. We got into our truck and headed to Island Park. After another 2 days of not starting my period, I bought another pack. This was the same story. Two pink lines, 10 minutes later 1 pink line. I did finally tell Ryan and we decided that I should probably call the doctor.
A phone call to Machel, my doctor, instructed me to come back down to Ogden because she couldn't believe it either. Number Two pregnancy on an IUD. I don't know what percentage this puts me in but I am pretty sure that it is nearing 1:1,000,000.
So now you know and in answer to the question of what species it is. It is another girl. Two boys and two girls. By the words of my mother-in-law, "You couldn't get it more perfect than that if you ordered them out of a catalog."
Oh yeah, for all you curious folks, She is due sometime before March 12 and I am 15 weeks along.

A Jedi is Born

A few days after we held the boys birthday party, they were being wild and using these new foam dart guns all over the house. They would shoot them at something and a few minutes later the dart would lose it's suction and fall down. Well Eric was shooting at the light on the ceiling and happened to stick one to it. He asked me if I could get it down and I told him that it was too high for me to reach. He then proceeded to hold both hands high above his head with his fingers flexed and stare at the dart. After about 5-10 seconds of this the dart fell down. Then he grabs it, very animatedly exclaims, "YES!!!!! I HAVE THE FORCE!" So now I know what he is practicing when all is quiet in the house. It is good to have a Jedi on your side.

Oh What a July!

We are now back from the crazy month of vacations. It has been a wild trip, but a ton of fun. Sorry about the many photos, but it is the first time that I have had the chance to update. Enjoy!

Lake Powell

The Dad's and their kiddies amazing Lake Powell Castle
Ryan and his sexy talent
Grandpa Hansen with Eric and Tyler inside the Indian ruins up Forgotten Canyon
Tyler and Rylee loved the slip and slide that the men made on the beach

Mommy and her girl
All the kids loved the sand, and I especially love Eric's bandana

Eric and Shae having a blast on "bumper tubes"
This was the shot of the week, taken by Lindsey. Matt was driving the boat and had already sucessfully thrown me off two previous times. On this occasion, he had me out of the wake and was still turning quickly. This caused Ryan to swing over to my side, jump the wake, land on my right side completly flipping me over. It happened so quickly that I didn't even know I had done a flip in the air until I saw this photo and the video. My ears and head hurt for the rest of the day, but it was fun.

Birthday Party

This year we had a combinded birthday party for Eric and Tyler. We invited some of their friends and held an Olympic celebration. The kids got to design their own shirt for their "olympic uniform". Had a candy toss, frisbee throw, water race, and topped the activities off with some major slip and sliding. Of course they all got medals because they were all so cute.

Island Park

This week was tons of fun! We spent many hours on the four-wheelers chasing the boys, hours on the lake teaching them to waterski for the first time, and going on beautiful bike rides. Vacationing is definatly becoming more and more work, but it is so rewarding to watch my children find something that they love and get better and better at it. Here are a few highlights of our trip.

I got tagged again.

I've been Tagged...
4 Places I Visit Over and Over
1. Sandy, UT
2. Shelley, ID
3. Lake Powell
4. Island Park

4 People who call/text/email me regularly
1. Ryan
2. My Mommy
3. Jodi
4. Christa

4 Favorite Foods
1. Fresh Fish
2. Bread
3. Cheese
4. Chinese

4 Places I'd Rather Be
1. Hawaii
2. Fiji
3. Wisconsin
4. Anywhere with my hubby

4 Movies I'd Watch Over and Over
1. Gone with the Wind
2. The Notebook
3. Memoirs of a Geisha
4. Home videos of my kids

4 Bands/Groups I love to listen to
1. Faith Hill
2. Kenny Chesney
3. Tim McGraw
4. Keith Urban

4 People I'm Tagging
1. Carly
2. Erica
3. Lori
4. Shauna

Book Tag

#1 get the closest book: The Slight Edge
#2 find page 123
#3 find the 5th sentence "Become acutely aware of who you are modeling"
#5 tag 5 other people! Clarissa, Ashley P., Mom, Lindsay, Ivy

I just grabbed the first one that I saw on my bookshelf, but I like the fourth sentence on this page, so I am adding that also.

"If you consistently associate with negative people, it's highly unlikely you will succeed at having and maintaining a positive approach to your life."

How's that for a nugget.

Happy Birthday Tyler

So I know that this is a day late, but blogger wouldn't let me download my photos last night, so it had to wait.
Happy Birthday Tyler! Today you are five, and I can't believe that you are growing up so fast. I was thinking back to the day that you were born and how excited we were to have you join our family, and I am pretty sure that it was only yesterday. You have been such a joy to have around. Your laughter and smile are so contagious, that I just can't get enough of them. I love the way that you come up to me and "give me sugar". The spirit that you carry with you is so strong and sensitive, I can tell that you are going to be a huge influence for good. I am so proud of your accomplishments already, and I can't wait to see what else you have in store. Happy Birthday buddy. I love you.

Happy Birthday Eric

I can't believe that you are seven years old today. Every time that I look at you I am so grateful that I am your mother. I am amazed with your many talents. You are such a brillant boy, and such a wonderful big brother. You carry a huge spirit around with you and I know that you were sent to the Earth and to our family to accomplish great things. I am just awestruck that I get to call you mine. I love it when you want to come up and sit with me, one of my favorite things to do with you is to sit and make up stories on the couch. Your imagination never ceases to amaze me. I will love you forever and ever, and I hope that you know that. Happy Birthday my big seven year old!

Sunshine and Summertime

Oh the joys of being a kid in the summertime. Need I say more?