July 2015 Family Vacation

    Wow!  Best vacation ever!  Started with a visit with Grandpa Steve and Grandma Linda.  Eric and Abbey ran to the temple to do baptisms while the rest of us played at the splash pad.  The next day, we loved the

family reunion with my mom's side of the family.  I interviewed my grandma and recorded it to upload to family search.  I also recorded my aunts and uncles sharing their favorite memories of Grandma Mary.  Super funny!  I can't wait to get them on family search.
     The kids went  on a great hike with grandpa Keith to a local waterfall.  Next we surprised the kids with a trip to California from there.  Visiting Great-Grandma Pikes house is always a treat.  We had a blast at Zuma beach!  Jeremy and his kids met us there.  Abbey body boarded almost the entire time and got a sunburn (despite her sunscreen) to prove it.  The kids were entertained from 12 to 5.  It was awesome!  Messy hair, sand all over everything and everybody, and fabulous memories!
      Next we visited the L.A. temple.  Eric and Abbey did baptisms for the dead while the kids and I played with the snails on the temple grounds.  Then we went to the L.A. zoo and then later the park.  Then the next day we went to the L.A. Science Center.  Very fun!  Then we watched a 3-D documentary on an imax screen.  Very well done!  Then bar-B-Q with smores.  Yum!
     Then home and recover.  Loved it!!!!  Total repeat!!!! 
    

Family Pictures

     I never grow tired of looking at my family pictures.  I look at them for at least an hour or more each time i get new ones.  I just love my good looking family!
     Abbey pointed out to me that it won't be very many more years until I''m a grandma.  Then another time she responded to me by saying "That is so wise mom, like a grandma."  I laughed and laughed.
     I'm low on enthusiasm for school.  This week is teacher appreciation week and the lady heading it up is asking us to do these creative things.  I am really low on desire to do anything creative.  It's almost over!

Spring break

     A few days ago after asking the kids to get their responsibilities done, Brad explains to me that he is too sick to do his responsibilities done, but not too sick to run around.
     That same day Brad decided to ride his scooter with his eyes closed.  He crashed into our fence and got a gash on his head.  He came in with blood dripping from his head.
     We took family pictures today.  I sure do love what cute, good looking kids I have!  Eric too!  Can't wait to share them! 
     We are visiting both sets of grandparents this weekend.  Lots of family and lots of fun! 
     A few days later......What a fun visit we had over spring break with so much family!  We loved having a pirate party with the Pikes and exploring caves with the Pearsons.  We are so happy to have such fabulous grandmas and grandpas for our kids.
     We enjoyed Carson's pinewood derby tonight. 

Happy Easter!

     We had an enjoyable, low key Easter.    We enjoyed conference weekend!  We have some traditions we always do.  Cinnamon rolls for breakfast one day and bunny buns for breakfast the other day.  We almost never buy chips, but we do for conference weekend and make 7 layer dip and have some other dips.   We think of quiz questions about conference as we watch and then try to stump each other with them after all the sessions are over.  We ask the kids to watch at least  one whole session and to also listen to the prophet when  he speaks.   I think my favorite talk was Elder Hollands and the one by one of the 70 about hearing the music of the gospel.  I love conference weekend! 
     We've had sick kids this week.  Not much fun.  Amelia had her first fever.  William missed three days  school.  I was really glad it wasn't worse and we didn't need to take anyone to the dr. 
      Carson and William are enjoying playing ball.  Carson hit a home run. 
     Odd bit of info:  Abbey is very picky about how comfortable her clothes are and will wait until the last minute to change her  clothes in the morning because they are not as comfortable as her pajamas.  On the other hand, Liza often sleeps in the jeans claiming they are comfortable. 
     Whenever I've heard the phrase about children bringing  their parents joy, I've always thought about young children and how cute they are and that brings parents joy.  I never imagined that might include teenagers, but I was wrong.  I love my older kids' sense of humor and they make me laugh on a regular basis.   I did not anticipate that joy at all. 

Peg leg Abbey

     The other day we saw a man walking that was missing a leg.  He had one of those sophisticated mechanical legs that looks like a machine rather than one made to look like person's leg.  Abbey responded by saying "That guy has a fake leg. That is so cool.  Somday I'm going  to have a fake leg."  We all had a good laugh over it.  Sorry Abbey, but I hope that dream never comes true.
     I'm not sure all the reasons why, but I am really enjoying this phase of my life.  Don't get me wrong, it's hard.  It's a lot of work and I'm still just as frustrasted when my kids do wrong things than I ever have been, and my kids are still doing as many things wrong as they ever have been before, but I feel like I'm enjoying my kids more than I ever have before.  Is it because Eric is serving as Bishop and the Lord is blessing our family so much because of it?  Is it because my girls are older and can help me more than they ever have before?   Is it because Eric and I are aren't making so many dumb mistakes in raising our kids now that we are older and more experienced?   Is it because Amelia has brought so much joy into our home?  I don't know, but I feel so blessed.  I think it may be a combination of all of these.  I feel closer to Eric, since he's been called as Bishop, than I ever have before.  That's a blessing the stake president specifically mentioned when Eric was set apart as Bishop.  We are so blessed.

Millie

      Amelia cut two teeth this last week.  She just wanted to be held  most of the time.  I didn't mind. 
     We call Amelia "Millie" sometimes as a nick name.  She hates taking a bath!  It's hard to understand why.  All my babies have loved baths.  Not her.  Wow!  You should hear her howl in protest.  She doesn't like showers either.  

     Eric's book wasn't accepted by Deseret Book.  So he published it on Amazon.   I still need to read it. 

     We will have three times as much garden this year, thanks to Eric.  He is so ambitious.  He has been watching a series where three families have to live like pioneers for 4 months.  It inspires him.

"Abbey does NOT know how to cook!"

     The other day, William made Bradley cry.  So I assigned William a chore.  William promptly asks Brad, who is still upset, to help him with his punishment chore.  Brad says ok and they head off together to go do the chore.  A scripture or two came to mind.
     "Except ye..... become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
     And "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of theHoly Spirit, and putteth off the naturalman and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."
                          -Amber
     On Saturday, Abbey made barbecue chicken pizza for dinner.  While making the dough, she turned on the mixer and water flew out of the bowl, splashing everywhere. Bradley saw the whole fiasco. He laughed,  and promptly ran down the hall to William. "William," Abbey overheard him say, "Abbey does NOT know how to cook!" In my humble opinion, I do know how to cook.  :) Anyway, the pizza and bread turned out great!
                        -Abbey

Surprise!

     Grandma Linda and Grandpa Steve surprised the kids with a visit this last weekend.  Everyone soaked up all the fun with bowling, going out for ice cream, hide and go seek, more games, going out for pizza, babysitting,  movie night, and lots of visiting!  Grandpa Steve does a great impersination of Donald Duck.  They left  this morning and Bradley has been trying to talk like Donald Duck all day.  They sure do love grandma and grandpa.
     The boys start teeball and baseball this week. It should be fun.
    

Bleck! Splat!

     Last night, Eliza lifted Amelia above her super man style to make Amelia happy and Amelia spit up and it landed right on eliza's nose.  It was hilarious.  I should have taken a picture.  Liza was laughing as hard as anyone.  She has been pooped on before by Amelia also.  It hasn't slowed her down in the slightest in holding her baby sister.  Mothering comes so natural to her. 
     Eric has helped the girls learn how to find ancestors who need their temple work done.  Eliza sat down with him tonight for the first time and she found multiple names.  It has been fun to watch.  I'm going to have to sit down and have them teach me.  I'm excited for the promised blessing they will have for doing family history!!!!!!!!!!
     Eric is really a great dad and hubby!  Even though our family was apart for valentines day this year, he still did his tradition of buying a mug and small stuffed animal and throwing some candy in the cup too for the kids to wake up to on valentines day morning.  The kids love it!  William and Carson sleep with their small stuffed animals on a regular basis. 
 

RootsTech 2015

Eric received an email a few months ago announcing RootsTech 2015, the family history conference in Salt Lake City "where people of all ages are inspired to discover and share their memories and connection."  There were going to be talks by a couple of apostles and other church leaders and other cool people.  As an added bonus, Studio C and David Archuleta would be performing there.  We talked about how cool it would be for Eric to take the girls (since it wouldn't be a very effective trip with Amelia and Bradley).  We weren't sure if it would work out, so we didn't tell them about it.
Well, Friday the 13th came and after an awesome advanced choir performance that Abbey was in, Amber took the boys home and Eric waited with Eliza for Abbey to come out.  Eric told the girls to go to the bathroom before they got in the car which started the questioning and their figuring that something was up.  Eric held out as long as he could, and told them, before they were even out of the parking lot, that they were going to RootsTech and all of the cool things that were there.  They were excited, to say the least.

Valentine's Day Sunrise

Most of the trip, however, was a bunch of driving.  We left Fallon and arrived in Elko at midnight.  After a snafu with reservations, we finally got to bed at 12:30.  We had a short nap and were back up at 5:30 to drive the rest of the way to SLC. 
We made it to the convention center and were walking down the hall, when we ran into a woman and her daughter from our ward.  Just after registering, we were walking toward our first class and heard someone else calling out to us; it was Amber's cousin Beth.  It's crazy how small the world is.
The first class was a discussion given by Elders L. Whitney Clayton, Allen F. Packer, and Kent F. Richards and Sister Marriott about performing family history work and common issues that come up.  One of the things that we were most excited about was when Elder Richards announced that all temples will begin "Family Priority Time" where families will be able to go in together and perform Baptisms and Confirmations.  We try to take Abbey every month and usually jump in with whatever group happens to be at that time, but the family priority time sounds like a great way to encourage more families to come and participate together.

Temple Selfie

After our first class we ran to get some lunch and then fast walked through temple square before running to get to the next speakers.  We were a little late to that one, but heard some great messages from Al Fox Carraway (The Tattooed Mormon blogger) and Noelle Pikus-Pace (The 2014 Silver Medalist in the skeleton), then Elder Andersen spoke, giving us a new challenge for family history.  A lot of the messages were based on the theme of Find, Take, Teach.  The challenge he gave was to "Prepare as many names for the temple as baptisms you perform in the temple and help someone else to do the same."  In other words: Find ancestors, Take their names to the temple, and Teach others how to do it.  There was an opportunity to get autographs from Studio C and David Arhculeta, but there were a ton of people and they shut down before we made it.  We then heard from Elder Cook and his family.  And last of all was the performance by Studio C and David Archuleta. 
We drove back to Elko for the night and then the rest of the way home Sunday morning to complete the whirlwind trip.  It was so much fun and we're hoping we'll be able to do it again another year.
Go to https://rootstech.org/video/4050134760001 for the videos (there were only a few as of this post, but they should have more up later).

That awkward moment when........

     I'm often surprised at how much joy Amelia gives me.  You might mistakingly think that her being my sixth child, that the funess of babies had lost it's enjoyment and gotten old, but not at all.  She makes me smile and laugh on a daily basis.  I love that she's such a happy baby.  She smiles at strangers and lights up their face.  We sure do love her. 
     So remember that young man Abbey heart attacked?  He's in our ward and he's adopted.  He and Abbey were at a mutual activity on family history and discovered his dad and I are related.  I so wish I could have been there and had a video camera recording everyone's reaction!  Abbey said it was extremly awkward!  Later when Abbey was recounting it to me and she said "that awkward moment when you realize you're related to your crush."  We've been laughing about it everytime we think about it.  So this video's for you Abbey. 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-ykfdmwxSG0

The Stars Are Aligning

     Tonight Abbey taught our family home evening lesson on the youth's theme for this year, service.  Then we made plates of goodies to deliver anonymously, otherwise known as doorbell ditching.   That is by far my kids favorite service project.  There's one family that catches us almost every time no matter what we do.  It's a blast!
     We thoroughly enjoyed having Eric all to ourselves today for stake conference.  
     Abbey has started doing family history and has found several ancestors that need their work done.  Very impressive!  I have yet to accompkish that.
     If nothing changes, it looks like the stars will align for my boys to be able to  play baseball and teeball in a league for the first time.  I'm excited for them, but not looking forward to being the taxi driver to practices and games with a baby in tow.   They will be in hog heaven!  You would think it, but William is fabulous at the bat. 
     Odd fact of the week:  Out of blue, Carson started sleeping with a santa hat on every night for about a week strait.  It made me smile each time I saw him sound asleep with the hat on his head.
     Carson's teacher said the following in an email this week:  "Carson is doing great so far..... Also just since coming back from Christmas break his little personality has really come out! He is so funny and makes me laugh all day! :)" 
    
    
    

"You and mom make a good team."

My lovely sister-in-law Lisa sends out a short summary of their family news and happenings each week. Each time I read it I think "I should do that. "
     So here goes.  In Carson's Christmas card  he made at school he wrote something like this: you are such great parents.  Thanks for having so many kids. I love to play with them, even Amelia.  Love carson.  That made me happy. 
     We had a rough night during Christmas break at my parents house. William and Bradley both threw up at least eight times each through out the night.  I lost track.    Eric and I both got up and worked together to set things right whether it was emptying and rinsing the bowl, finding clean clothes, cleaning up any that missed the bowl, etc. This morning William said to Eric "you and mom make a good team." That made me happy, too.
     The other day Abbey injured her foot outside and came into the house. She got blood on the floor. I saw the blood on the floor and instead of checking on her I just called"abbey, come clean up your blood."  She was fine and thought my lack of sympathy humerous.
     Today she pointed out once again a time when I was a little less than sympathetic.  William was puking loudly and Amelia was still sleeping and I asked him to try to be quieter.  Poor kid. He's puking for like the 12th time in the last 12 hours and what do I say? "Please be quieter."
    

How is it having six kids?

My sister asked me how it was having six kids. I said it depends on the day. Later I wrote this to her:  no regrets! If I could go back, I'd have her all over again! I love her spare tires and rolls and smile!        
      Last week of christmas break:  We survived this week with sick kids. The words of a song come to mind "and mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again!"  Bless the person who came up with the idea to make schools!  We had lots of crabby, sick kids stuck in the house all week with lots of movies, reading, and playing with new christmas toys. 
Love you ladies!!!

Heart attack

Abbey heart attacked her first boy over Christmas break.  By heart attached, I mean she taped a bunch of paper hearts with messaged on them to his front door with one of her girl friends.  The young man and his family were out of town. So they came home to a heart attack and messages written in chalk all over their drive way.  I still kind of wish she was shy and quiet and awkward like I was when I was her age, but she's not.  She's very  confident when it comes to interacting with the young men.
     Amelia rolled over for the first time this last week.  I love her chubby legs!

I'm like a gazelle

     My favorite line from Carson this week was "I'm like a gazelle."   "Huh," I asked. "How are you like a gazelle?"  He  went on to explain that he's half cheetah, half wolf, half gazelle,  and half gorilla. He's like a cheeta because he's so fast, wolf because they can run long distances like marathon runners, gorillas because he likes to climb trees, and gazelle because he's agile.  He went on to expound about under what circumstances he uses each speed and sometimes combines creature abilities because of the conditions.  Love that kid!
     I also loved what William said.  "When I get married, I'm going to ask my wife if I can name the boys and she can name the girls."
     Sacraments are getting rough between Amelia and Bradley.   Amelia is out of that new infant, sleeps a whole lot through anything faze.  I'm spending more time in the halls and mother's lounge than in sacrament.  If you haven't had to try to breastfeed your baby while your four year old boy tips the other rocker so far back it falls to the ground with him on it, you are fortinate.  Don't forget spinning the chair around and around.  They say I'm going to miss this someday.  Hmmmm.