Time to Catch UP!

I don't have a good excuse for letting my blog get so behind, but I'm finally just going to get it all caught up. So the next 3 or 4 posts (I've already lost track) should get us back to the present.




Mindy and I started a new business this year called, The Divvy Up. It's a semi-annual children's consignment sale held at our local fairgrounds. I knew this would be a large task, but it really has kept both of us very busy. We held our first sale in July and felt really good about it. Our second sale was just a few weeks ago, in October, and we were very happy with it. After talking to other people around the country that do this we expected a 50% increase, so we were excited when we checked in twice as many items in October than we did in July. It's been a learning expeirence for both of us, but we've also had a lot of fun with it, too.

We put together a float for the Fourth of July parades. We enlisted our children to pass out hangers with attached fliers to the crowds while Mindy and I rode on the back of the trailor and threw candy. The weather was so nice and cool that day, that we actually had a good time.

Here is a photo from our July sale. With double the items and the addition of 10 vendor booths our building was really full in October.
Saying "Goodbye" to the Goodrich's when they moved to the end of the earth this summer would have been so much harder had we not spent 4 years in Nebraska. This family has been so special to us since we met them in 1997. Kathy and I traded so much babysitting when our kids were little that I'm not sure what I would have done without her! Of course we'll always stay in touch and with my 4 girls and her 6 boys there is sure to be a wedding in the future!

Catch UP! #2

After The Divvy Up I tried to do a few fun things with the kids. We went camping to Twin Lakes with Justin's family, we went to Bear Lake twice, once with Aspen Dental and once with Logan Dental. We also went to the local pool a couple of times. Our kids love, love, love the water so they could spend all day at the lake!
We went to Lagoon twice this summer. When we bounced back we ran into some "Nebraska" friends, The Van De Graaff's. Their family moved to Idaho the same time we moved to Utah, but we never expected to see them at Lagoon! We spent quite a while riding rides with them and catching up. What a fun surprise!
I thought this picture at Lagoon was fun. We were in line to get on the train and the kids all ran over to get a drink. I didn't really get many pictures of the older girl's because the spent most of their time on the big rides. Addilee loved riding the bumper cars and the little swings. When we bounced back we spent most of the day swimming at Lagoona Beach, which was fun.

Catch UP! #3

Justin baptized JR this summer after he turned 8. They do Stake Baptisms here, which made me miss individual baptisms in Nebraska. Fortunately for us there were only two children baptized that day. JR went second and when he went back in the dressing room to get dressed he discovered that the first boy had taken his clothes. It took quite a while to convince the boy and his father that they were indeed JR's clothes and to give them back. It was a very spiritual day with our families. After the baptism and confirmation we went back to the house for donuts and juice. Robin and Richard invited us to go water skiing so it was off to the lake and then to the Rodeo that night.
Everyone else posted first day of school pictures so I feel like I should, too, even though we are 1/3 of the way through the school year. Here are the kids (and one neighbor) enjoying our traditional ABC 123 pancakes! Melanie is in 1/2 day kindergarten this year, which means I get the pleasure of making a trip to the bus stop every day at noon. JR is in 3rd grade, Taralee in 6th, and Emillie in 9th.

Catch UP! #4

Halloween is far from my favorite holiday, but the kids do love it. I think they love the candy most, but they also have fun dressing up. Emillie went to a party with her friends dressed as an angel. Taralee trick-0r-treated the neighborhood with her friends dressed as the Toothfairy. JR was a cowboy, Melanie and cowgirl, and Addilee dressed as Dora again to trick-or-treat the neighborhood.
Emillie loves spirit day at school. Go Bobcats!!!
You know the cake is the most important thing about a birthday at our house. What could be better for Emillie than a phone/cake?
I surprised Taralee with a birthday party for her 12th birthday. I made the cake a couple of days before and hid it in our oven. I wasn't planning on baking anything until that day I decided to bake some muffins for the party. It didn't take long for the whole house to smell like melted plastic, yuck! I was able to salvage the cake with the leftover frosting, but the cake plate was a loss. We played games and made flower barretts and notepads. I think she liked it!

A day of firsts for our family!

On Saturday May 16 our family had a couple of milestones. The first one was the completion of my first (and probably last) marathon!!!! After 16 weeks of training I was so happy to finally be running down Ogden Canyon. I didn't finish quite as fast as I'd hoped for, but my ultimate goal was to just do it, and I did it! The weather was perfect and the scenery was gorgeous. After I crossed the finish line the kids were playing on a playground in the park while I got my piece of bread and Jamba Juice (there was better food at the finish lines of my 10K and half marathon, that's for sure!). When I went over to get them I saw JR crying under the slide and I knew right off that he was really hurt. The last thing I wanted to do was go to the Doctor after running 26.2 miles, but what is a mother to do? Justin had to go to work, so we ran home so that I could have a quick shower and then it was off to the instacare. 2 1/2 hours later we had x-rays confirming two broken arms. Neither Justin or I have had broken bones, nor any of our other five kids, so this is a first for our family. Now that he has his casts on life is much better because he can bend his elbows and touch his fingers to his thumbs. The five days of splints were enough for me, it was like having a baby again. I had to feed him, dress him, open doors for him, buckle him in, and even help him put his shoes on. The doctor expects about a month in casts so he should be free by the time we go on the family camp out to the lake!

Greenville Idol presents: Taralee Carter

Taralee's school held a talent show that they called, "Greenville Idol". Taralee performed some stand-up comedy from Brian Regan. She made it through the first round of 3 mom judges and then she made it through the second round of the student body voting. Now she gets to perform one last time in front of the whole school when they reveal the top 3 winners. This isn't very good footage, but it gives an idea of funny she was!

I'm not a fun mom!

Upon leaving the grocery store today Melanie says, "Mom, you're just not a fun mom. You're always mean and we never get to do anything fun.

"Like what kind of fun stuff do you want to do?" I ask her.

She comes back with, "Well, you never let us ride in the driver shopping carts."

It's true, I hate those enormous carts that are impossible to maneuver. The kids always fight over where they get to sit and before long they are all running around the store. Even Addilee, who has probably never sat in one, tells me EVERY time we get a grocery cart that Mom hates those!

I guess I'm going to have to relax a bit and be a more fun mom, maybe.

We're Lost!

Several of the girls in Justin's office and some of our neighbors convinced us to start watching the series Lost. Over Christmas we checked out season 1 from the Library and it didn't take very long to get addicted. We caught up to the rest of the world last week and now we have to suffer with everyone else waiting for a new episode each week. We are totally "Lost" without it!

Can you spot the difference?

After: Before:

This is what happens when I suffer from spring fever. I've been wanting to paint this wall since we moved in and with the winter dragging on I just decided to do it! I love the way it turned out, and now I'm itching to paint the downstairs bathroom. (I don't know why it put the after picture first, I'm still trying to figure out this blogging thing.)

Melanie turns 5!

Melanie started asking for a birthday party last week, but I was a little hesitant to agree to one. I asked her what she wanted to do for a party and she said she just wanted to take Stella to Grandma Ashbaker's to soak in her hot tub, watch a movie and eat gummy bears. I thought that was a great idea for a party so that is what we did! After our soak Grandma and Grandpa took us to Pizza Villa for pizza, yum yum! Then it was off to redbox to claim our free Monday rental. The girls wanted to see Horton Hears a Who (again), but they only lasted as long as the gummy bears held out and then they wanted to be in on the cake decorating. I should have bought more gummy bears! After dinner (leftover pizza, thank you Grandma) we had the Anhder's over for the traditional cake and ice cream. She opened her presents, which included a new summer wardrobe and a coloring book. (toys were provided only by the grandma's & the aunt's) I can't believe Melanie is 5, it seems like just last week that she was 4. (hee hee)

New table and new grills!

After 15 1/2 years of marriage we finally made a furniture purchase at a real furniture store (Shopko does not count as a real furniture store!). We've been wanting this dining room table for a long time and we finally got it this last month. There was a little hassle with the delivery (a little surprise when we opened the box to find the wrong table), but after it was all said and done we are really happy with it. It's nice to have a seat for everyone at one time!

Emillie and I are also sporting new grills this month. She is wearing her Dr. Poole & Dr. Willis ortho sweatshirt that she got the day she got her braces, and I'm wearing my Nebraska College of Dentistry sweatshirt where my orthodontist, who is in the background, got his training. She was a good 2 weeks before she wasn't in a ton of pain, but lucky for me I was feeling pretty good after a week or so. Also lucky for me I will be done by the end of the year, she will be sporting her grill for two years. What we won't do for some mother-daughter bonding.

Something I forgot to blog...

A few weeks ago Taralee and a friend, Kristen, went to the Mall to go shopping. While they were there they bought milk shakes, but they didn't finish them. They brought them back to the house to eat them while they were "hanging out". When Kristen's mom came to pick her up I reminded her to get her milkshake from the Kitchen. She said, "Oh, yea" and ran off to get it. She came back empty handed and said she changed her mind she didn't want to take it with her.

I didn't think much of it until we said goodbye to them and I went into the kitchen only to find Justin talking on the phone, sipping on Kristen's milkshake. No wonder she changed her mind! We had a good laugh and Justin called Kristen to offer her a new milk shake next time they go shopping.

No More Wisdom...

Ever since Justin took a pan of my mouth last fall he has been itching to remove my one and only wisdom tooth. I finally made it in last Friday to let him extract it. I'll admit I haven't been in as much pain as I thought I would, but I'm certainly glad that I only had one and not four! He was such a good dentist and took very good care of me. I'm well on my way to recovery, today is the first day that I haven't looked like I had a golf ball in my cheek.
In other exciting tooth news, Emillie will be getting braces next week. When the orthodontist told her she was ready for braces, she grinned ear to ear and has been giddy with excitement ever since. I told her to be careful what she wishes for!

I guess I didn't do that great!

The below pictured groceries have roughly a $133.00 value, with their sale prices. I spent $63.47. As per your guesses I guess I didn't do so hot. I need to have Lana show me a thing or two about couponing. Or I can just give it up.

Guess how much?

Most of you know about the crazy coupon ladies in Utah (no offense to those of you who are), but my friend Mindy called me at 9:30 Tuesday night and said, "Want to go to Albertons with me at 6 am for their killer sale?" After hesitating for a few moments she showed me where to print coupons on the internet and we went grocery shopping at 6 am. Now I've stood in line for electronics, toys, cricuts, and even for my friends, but I have never (until now) stood in long lines for GROCERIES! After it was all said and done, we were gone for 2 hours and this is what I came home with. Now keep in mind I did not have all the great coupons most of the other crazy ladies did, but guess how much I spent on all these items. I'll post the answer in a few days. FYI: I'm not going to do this again, it wasn't worth it.
p.s. Today I checked out at Sam's club right behind the lady that I checked out behind at Albertsons yesterday. She told me her friend wasn't as quick to get in line as we were and it was 10:30 before she was able to pay for her groceries. That is 4 1/2 in a grocery store. At least I'm not that crazy!

Christmas at home!

We enjoyed spending Christmas in our own home this year. Christmases at Grandpa and Grandma's have been fun and memorable, but it was nice to be in our own home this year. We declared Christmas pajama day and some of us even stayed in them for a few days. After we opened presents we had our neighbors, The Anhder's come over for breakfast. The kids were so anxious to show each other what they got!

On Christmas Eve we went sledding with the Ahhder's and then had dinner at their house. After dinner the kids acted out the Nativity for us. When it was time for the Shephard, Taralee, and her sheep, Addilee, to come on Addilee would budge. She was laying on her tummy with her head buried in her arms. Taralee had to push and pull her into the stable to see the holy family. Everyone was trying hard not to laugh as Addilee peeked up every once in a while to show us her smiling and laughing face.

Every time I turned around Addilee was making another snow angel.

Tara, Hannah, and Emillie

Justin, Melanie, and Talia. Conrad and JR in the back. Thanks Anhder's for a fun Christmas Eve!