The Hoyt Family

Bahamas Trip

2011-10-10T11:36:00.000-04:00

So for Steve working so hard last year and bringing his team from last place to first place in the region they were awarded with an 5 day paid trip to the Bahamas to stay at the Atlantis Resort... WOOO HOOO!!!
My husband is so awesome.. They all worked really hard for this.. My husband even got the Apex award which is the highest award you can recieve within the company. It is for 1st place District Buisness Manager for the entire company in the entire region or U.S It was quite an honor.

And what was even cooler is that most of his team that he manages made the top reps for the company as well so we all got to go together as a team and that rarely happens and we probably wont ever see that happen again so it was a very awesome trip..

One of the first things we did on the island was the Dolphin Cay where we got to swim with the dolphins. This was something I have wanted to do my whole life.. I absolutly love love love dolphins.. I was even going to go into marine biology so I could study them and work with them.. However I didnt want to move away to go to school so here I am just dreaming about the what ifs.. I probably would have never ended up with Steve though so it was meant to be..

Smooching with the Dolphins..

It was so fun we would get on these boogie boards and flex our feet and the dolphin would swim up behind us and put the tip of his nose on the bottom of our foot and push us through the water.. They would get going so fast it was such a blast...

Here is the view from our rooms balcony.. Awesome isn't it?

Our room..

In the distance a disney cruise ship that is docked.. A diffrent Cruiseship came in every morning.

Atlantis... One of the towers anyways..

Beautiful sunsets...

Awards night.

This is Steve's team that got to go with us.. There were 3 I think that did not make it with us..

This is Steve accepting his Apex Cup.. It is really big and heavy..

His team accepting their awards.

One of the many beautiful gardens around the resort.

In one of the pools were these beautiful creatures.

and some of these...

Puffer Fish.

These were some of the gorgeous chandeliers in the Casino's of Atlantis. All hand blown.

There was a turtle bay too..

They had some hammerheads too.

And some of the saw tooth sharks too.. Not sure the technical name my son could tell you but they look like a chain saw blade.

And some great whites.

More of the Cove.

Here is a better picture of all the Atlantis buildings. Throughout these diffrent building there is also little rapid rides and water slides too they were so fun but not really area we could have our camera so no pictures.. They have a lazy river ride that I think we spent most of our time just laying on big tubes and floating the river and soaking up the sun.. It was so perfect.... While there I of course had a massage and facial at the spa.. It was heavenly..

I am so bummed we did not have more pictures of some of the things we did.. We just were having so much fun and kept forgetting our camera.. There was a marina where all the million dollar boats would come and dock their boats to come stroll the shopping strips and restaurants at night. it was so fun to walk around and see all the fancy boats. the night life was amazing. We also were able to get a couple dive's in while there abd we have a disk with video but no picts to post. :((

We were able to dive one of the sunken ships from the james bond movies. We got to see some great spotted eagle rays and an octopus and tons of tropical fish.. We did a 100 ft dive which is our biggest depth dive yet.. lots of fun.. There is nothing like being under the water with the sea life..

Stay tuned lots more summer activities to catch up on....

Nauvoo 2011 Trip

2011-09-27T21:20:00.008-04:00

Wow So I got some major catching up to do... Here it is already Fall turning October in a few days and the last I posted it was just turning Spring.. What a slacker... This summer was so busy so I am going to start off with our Nauvoo Trip where we had a little family reunion with Steve's brothers... Sister Amy was at home ready to have a baby any day.. We missed her but this would have not been a good trip for someone in her condition. So we stayed in this home that had 4 queen beds and a bunk house which had 2 sets of bunk beds.. And 2 bathrooms. There was 20 of us... Needless to say it was a bit crazy having only 2 bathrooms and we had kids sleeping on the floors everywhere..But it was fun none the less...

One of the days we were there we decided to do a little handcart trek.. Little did we know how crazy it was going to be.. It had rained really hard and blew really bad the night before so things were really muddy and we had to cross little rivers several times... Here are a few of the fun spots we had to trek through.

This was one of the better ones... Sorry but my pictures did not load in the order I wanted them too so you will have to go go with it....

Steve and I posing in front of the Joseph Smith and Brigham Young statues.

Steve's brother Rich and his family in front of the Nauvoo temple.

More rigorous trails.

Waiting to go on the carriage ride through nauvoo.

All the cousins.

Kim and I..

Logan

Logan's shoe got stuck in the mud..

Steve's youngest brother Matt and his family.

We had to stop to move the turtle out of the road...

Our OX.. what team work.

Our crazy group...

Some of the trees we got to hike through on the trek.

Ran into a few obstacles on the path.. There were some tree's down due to the high winds the night before.

allie and Sara were troopers they pulled the cart most of the way...

Talk about steep..

One of the night shows (Sunset by the Mississippi) Kids had a great time..

My handsome nephew..

At one of the shows (Anna Amanda Amelia Applebe) Logan's favorite show..

Also on this vacation was Logan's 7th Birthday.. It was nice she got to spend it with family and cousins... However she was still dissapointed in not having a friend birthday.. It's hard when your birthday falls in the summer...

The boy's playing with fire again..They cant get together without having a fire to play in..

Jessie's horse cake.. Aunt Chan did a great job decorating it..

she finally got an American girl doll..

The kids broke the tree swing so Steve had to climb it to re attach the ropes. It was very high and he was a bit nervous coming down.

We had beautiful sunsets there..

So after Nauvoo Matt Steve's youngest brother and his family came back to our house to stay with us for a few days and help us with a few things that needed done.. It was so nice to have them stay with us... Well while we were out taking care of the lawn Steve decided to stick his hand under the lawn mower while it was still running.. Luckily he had a good pair of working gloves on and just his tips went in.. He was so extremely lucky to still have his fingers.. Because of the force of the blade hitting his finger's the blood blew out the tips of his fingers causing little lacerations, but other then that and a small cut through the nail and some bad bruising he was very lucky... However because they are on the tips of the fingers where all the nerves are he was in a whole lot of pain.. Thank heavens Matt is a doctor and was there when it happened and was able to help with the situation..

Well that was our Nauvoo trip.. Lot's more to come of our summer.. Lot's to catch up on....

Spring Time Finally

2011-06-06T22:50:00.000-04:00

I just love Spring Time.. It has been so crazy here with the weather.. We have temps in the 80's and 90's then the next day they drop down to 40's.. Welcome to Michigan.. However it has stayed pretty nice since Memorial weekend.. And over the weekend we did alot of working outside in our yard and tried to get some things caught up.. We tilled and planted a garden and found some nests around the yard and this happens to be one of them and guess what had just hatched the day of the picture? Pretty ugly hu? They are baby Robins..

This is a duck's nest we found along our water canal ditch.. We ended up scarring the mother off and we havn't seen her come back.. Hope she does and they hatch.

On Memorial day we spent the day tilling the yard and fencing and planting our garden.. Not sure what happened to the pictures I took after it was planted.. I cant wait.. We planted tomatoes, carrots, peas, beans, peppers, onions, pumpkin, watermelon, squash, cucumbers, broccoli,corn plus not shown we planted 10 rasberry bushes 8 strawberry bushes, 4 apple tree's, 2 peach, and 2 apircot tree's.. I feel like we are turning into farmers..

with 6 acre's we have lot's of space to ride the 4 wheeler. Also with 6 acres we had to buy one of those big zero turn riding lawn mowers.. It still takes us 4 hours to mow the lawn.

Steve said we would never get a trampoline for the kids.. Well guess what the kids won.. With all the open space they convinced him they needed a trampoline..

Along with spring comes baseball.. Austin has been having a blast playing this year..

Our new kitten we promised the kids we would get as soon as we had our own house.

Then we had the Mormon Prom.. Out here in Michigan they have a mormon prom which is basically like a glorified stake dance where 5 stakes come together for a dance and they dress semi formal... It gives the youth of the church a nice dance to go to that has higher standards with modest clothing.. Allie had a blast and danced all night..

Along with our house came a Hot Tub and we did not really have any clue as to how much chemicals to use and we didnt have any testing strips.. Well on Easter we cleaned out the hot tub filled it and put chemicals in and thought we were ok but little did we know.. Because of our well water our ph in the water was off the charts and our son got a horrible rash all over his entire body.. We took him to the doctor and found out he had what is called hot tub folliculitis.. He was put on antibiotics and a steroidal lotion.. after about 2-3 weeks it finally went away.. It was really bad... This picture does not do it justice.. His eyes were swollen he looked aweful.. We had to keep him home from school for 2 days just because he looked so bad..

Anyways that is how are spring is going so far although I dont think it is spring much anymore.. The last 3 days we have had temps up to the 80's and 90's

Stay tuned my next post will be on our awesome trip to the Bahamas.. Steve made All Star #1 manager in the country for his company so we got an all paid trip to Atlantis in the Bahamas... It was sooooo great...

New House

2011-06-06T15:22:00.000-04:00

Ok So these are a little late coming.. I have had them in draft for a cmonth or so now and decided I better get things caught up..

This is our new home. Before rennovations.. This is the entry living room. Just had started to get painted.

The Master Bath

Master bedroom

Kitchen

Looking into the Family room

Basement just after painted. Walls were green before. This will be our theater room.. will post picts when we get it finished.

room off of family room. We are making it a computer room.

Jessie's bedroom.

Basement Storage.. Just built these shelves for my food storage... So nice.....

Finished product... Our family room..

Computer Room. Still trying to talk the hubby into moving the Kudo head to the pole barn..... LOL

Dining Room

My awesome wood floor.. Love it.....

Entry.

My awesome Tile.

Master Bedroom.. Huge!!

Master Bath

work out room

Living Room looking into dining room

Kitchen

Jessie's

Logan's

Allie's

Austin's

Back yard only half of it.

A New Year!!

2011-02-03T16:53:00.006-05:00

Oh my word here it is a new year and I am just now getting on here.. Boy I have neglected my poor blog... I have so much to catch up on. This year one of my resolutions is to get on here more often and blog so I can make them into blog books.. I did that with the previous years and they turned out nice...

Well where to begin. There is so much.. Think I will just touch on the highlights.

After all our vacations this summer we got settled back into life.
Kids Started school. Everyody's first day picts.

Fall quickly set in and I wanted to get some outdoor picts before it got to cold.

This was our family pict we had done in Utah

We had a friend from our ward take pictures of the kids for their school picts.. I never like the ones they get back from the school.

Got one of us done too.

Austin was swinging from a rope swing at the neighbors and jumped off and ended up slipping on some leaves and caught the tree on the way down.

We went to the ER and they told us it was just an abrasion and sent us home, however after getting home and cleaning it up really good we discovered it really needed stitches so we ended up having to take him back.. They ended up putting a couple staples in it.

The nifty little hat they made him at the hospital.. It

didn't last long.

. Then came Halloween. I think the costumes fit the kids personalities very well this year. No pictures but Allie was a half angel half devil and Austin was a guy from the 70's with a big afro.

Then quickly came Thanksgiving.. My parents surprised us by coming out. We also had a family from our ward join us this year.

We had a great feast with great family and friends.
Then came the Birthday month. Austin, Steve and my birthdays are in the month of November so it was a very busy month. Not in order but here is Steve on his birthday. We are big with making treasure hunts for the birthday person and making them find their gifts.

This year we had a party for Austin at the Rec center with a few of his friends.. They had a blast swimming.

This year was also a special year for Austin because he turned 12 so he received the priesthood.. It was so nice to have my mom and dad out here to be a part of him receiving the priesthood.. Steve is able to trace our lineage of priesthood all the way back to Joseph Smith so that was really cool for him.

December came and went so fast.. We left for Utah on the 17th and drove out.. We had great weather for for our trip out. It was so great to see family and friends..

What would Christmas be without our traditional lump of coal and stick of wood.

Allie got her own 22....

Got to see my very best friend ho looked fabulous.She had a tumor removed from her thyroid and dropped so much weight and now is a skinny minnie.. I am so happy for her and am happy she finally is feeling well again. Now I look like the good year blimp next to her.. Hopefully I will loose it this year.

Steve with his mom Christmas morning.

We were so bummed thou because a storm came in and forced us leave for home early then planned to stay ahead of the storm so we unfortunately did not get to see all our family and friends that we had planned to so we were really bummed about that. It has been so long since we have seen some of the family and friends. Hopefully we will have a chance this year.

We got a wii game just dance that has been a family favorite. I love that it gets the kids up and moving..

Just dance on the Wii

And finally we are here to Feb. It was Jessie's birthday yesterday. It was also a snow day off from school due to the biggest blizzard MI has had in quite some time.. She was so excited to have her Bday on a snow day. They also cancelled school for today as well so it has been a nice break.

Jessie wanted a horse cake. I think it turned out pretty well..

Steve also got to stay home due to the storm so they all went out and built a snow cave..It turned out pretty awesome.. The snow was so powdery so they added lots of water to it make it pack and turn to ice with our balmy 17 below zero temps through the night.

Our hill of death as the kids call it.

Just to catch you up on the other stuff that as happened that was not documented with picts. We have finally found a house in Grand Blanc MI that we have decided to buy and move into... We will close on Feb 14th and move in possibly he end of March. It will be nice to finally own a home again and not have to rent.. We are not so excited to move out of our wonderful ward and make the kids change schools once again but we prayed hard that things would workout for the best and we would end up where we were supposed to be, so now we are just putting our faith in the Lord and hoping that we will transition smoothly and the kids will like their schools and meet some great friends, and we will feel at home in our home and new ward. I think Allie is struggling the most with leaving her friends from the ward and school.. It takes such a long time for her to come out of her shell and make friends so I hope she will settle in quickly and meet some new friends.

Hopefully I will keep this a little more up to date this year.. I will post picts of the house once we get settled in..

Flying By

2010-09-16T11:35:00.033-04:00

Where did the summer go???

Be prepared this is a long one..

Wow the summer flew by in a blink.. With all the vacations we took the time has just vanished..

We were so lucky this summer to be able to make so many get aways.. So now to conclude our summer vacations with our trip out to Utah, and Hawaii!!

For starters about 2 weeks prior to our leaving for Utah my parents played another big surprise on me and showed up on our doorstep.. They decided since they were not going to be able to spend much time with the kids while we were there in Utah due to that we were going to be spending the first week with Steves family camping and then leave for Hawaii the second week with my parents. So they decided to come here and get some good quality time with them..

It was so nice to have them here and keep me company while steve went on a week long buisness trip.. We did alot of biking while they were here.. Steve and I had just purchased new Giant bikes and my parents bought new bikes as well so we were breaking them in.. Usually my dad and I got or early morning rides in then often went with the kids throughout the day.. One Saturday we got a total of 30-35 miles in.. We were wooped!! It was a nice change from running and much easier on my body... I miss having my biking partner!!

So we packed up and left for Utah and it was nice having my parents making the trip with us it seemed to make the trip go by much faster and gave us someone to talk with along the way..

The first night we made it to Omaha Nebraska where Steve's aunt Jana lives and works at a casino and was able to get a room for us.. It was awesome.. She had little goody bags for the kids full of candy and toys. She was so nice and she took us to dinner and signed the kids to play in this cool playland area where they could do kareoke, play video games, play on the gym equipment. They had a blast......

Next day we made it to Rollins Wyoming.. It was so nice to see the mountains again. Along the way we had stopped at a rest stop and we encountered one of these..

At first we thought it was wild but soon found out this was a man's pet. It was very friendly and was constantly on the go walking around the grounds of the rest stop..

Once we got to Utah we got ready to go go to Flaming Gorge where we would always go every year with Steve's brother.. Oh how we have missed camping here for the last 3 years.. We had such a blast..

Aunt Kim...

Aunt Chandra.... I loved this.. My nephew Kenny keeps her busy!!

Logan getting ready to hit the sack..

Our awesome boyscouts playing with the fire...

The kids had so much fun being pulled on the tubes.

Getting ready to do some solem skiing which I never did get up for some reason.

And of course Scuba Steve ripping up the waves..

And Uncle Rich catching some sweet air. I only feel bad I didnt get any pictures of Steve's other brother Matt who was slaying the water and getting some serious air..

After Austin saw his cool uncles ripping up the water he decided this year was going to be the year he would try wake boarding.. He has been skiing since he was about 7 and so now he is broadening his horizons. After a couple attempts he had mastered this too...

We had so much fun at the Gorge.. Wish we could have only had more time.. But all good things must come to an end so new ones can begin..... And so it did!!

The first stop?? The Beautiful Island of Oahu...

We took a drive around the island and almost every beach we stopped at there were plenty of these..

At the Pearl Harbor Museum. The U.S Arizona

Beautiful mountain in Oahu.

Stopping by on of the stands along the road that goes around the island for some fresh coconut and pineapple.. YUMMY!!!!

At the Polynesian Culture Center.. Mom got called up on the stage because it was her birthday so she could learn to do the native dance from the island of fiji..

At the Luau

A little out of order but trying to cannonball it on the zip line..

This is the beach we did some snorkeling at in Maui.. Awesome fish here.. We say 3 eagle rays and 3 sea turtles and just tons of diffrent fish.. I also found a conk shell that was still alive.. I contemplated on taking it home but thought I better preserve sea life and put it back.. Later walking through the shops down town found a conk shell selling for $200 dang!!!

Dad thought he would give snorkeling a try..

On the beach looking for sea glass..

Temple on Maui

Very hot guy from one of the islands..

This guy was my favorite. He was from Samoa and he said people call him I'm so handsome.. He was a riot.. Ok not sure why my text is underlining.. sorry!!

There were some pretty big guys from these islands.. Samoa

Fiji

This was Diamond Head on Oahu..

Gorgeous sunsets from our balcony!!

Dad heading down into the bamboo hole to find the waterfalls..

A set of 3 falls called the 3 bears..

Cliff jumping at the 7 sacred pools.

even Grandpa jumped...

Steve jumping from the upper cliffs probably 30-40 ft high.

One of the beautiful angel fish we saw while scuba diving..

More fish..

This was called the cathedrals.. It was so beautiful.. They actually perform wedding ceremonies down here.

One of the girls on our dive found an octopus.. It wanted to suck face with her..

I wasn't to sure I was happy about seeing one of these on our dive.. I kept my distance but it is cool to think I actually saw one..

My tarzan swinging from the tree's..

There was an awesome park made out of these banyan trees.. Well it was like 1 banyan tree planted a couple hundred years ago which spread and rooted down in different spots so its all connecting.. It was awesome..

So that pretty much concludes my pictures of our hawaii and utah adventure. We got to the airport to come home and found out that the plane had broke down and didnt make it to hawaii so we had no idea of when we were going to get out.. Wish we could have known sooner to make arrangements but owell.. We spent 6 hrs hanging out at the airport before we finally got a flight out and then had more delay in LA but eventually we made it... It was a very long night though and it was very hard to get used to the time changes coming back..

I am so missing the beaches right now and the warm breezy temps.. Sigh!!!

Now School is back in session and we are getting back into a routine.. Fall has set in here in MI.. The leaves are all starting to turn and it is beautiful...

We are looking for a house to buy so we can finally be done renting but it is a long process.. We find one we like to only find out it is already under contract or sold... I guess everything happens for a reason and the right one will come along eventually.... Not looking forward to moving or having the children change schools again but I guess we do what we have too.. I only wish it was back home to utah but it must not be meant to be at this time... Hopefully someday...

Part 2 of Summer Vacation

2010-07-20T09:17:00.015-04:00

Ok so 1 week after school got out we started our summer vacation saga.. The day we left for Florida was Logan's birthday so we celebrated the night before with a simple family party with presents and cupcakes.. The Sat. before we took her to the park and had a couple of friends come and went to the splash pad.. Of course I forgot the camera so no picts..

We had a long drive to florida.. Made it to Georgia the first day then got into Florida the second day.. It wasnt as bad as I thought it was going to be.. The kids were all pretty good other then having to make potty stops every half hour to hour for Logan who has a very small bladder.. And her asking us every 20 mins "Are we there yet".. We rented a pool home which is so the way to go.. It's so much better then renting a hotel and it's usually cheaper.. The kids enjoyed being able to swim everyday..

Here is our first day at disney at the entrance.. It was so hot.. the temps were around 98 and with the humidity it was more like 108.. It literally sucked the life right out of you.. Some lines for the rides were long so it was really hard on the kids to stand in lines in the hot weather.. We had to keep dousing ourselves with water and made sure to drink lots..

Allie didnt like the spinning teacups to well..

The firework show was awesome.. This picture was a little out of place.. More firework picts below.

Austin trying to pull the sword out of the stone.

At night it was so pretty with the castle changing colors..

Our little poser.. We couldnt get her to make a struggle face of pulling the sword out..

Ok here is some of the fireworks.. Some of the best I have seen..

Had to force the kids into posing with Daisy.. Well at least Austin,,, it's just not cool to do that now that he's all grown up.. "Whatever"!!

We went to a dinner show one of he nights.. Medieval Times.. The kids really had a blast here.. They do real jousting and sword fighting.. Right up Austin's alley.. The kids loved being able to eat with just their hands.. Our knight was the blue knight to cheer for and Jessie and Logan was serenaded with a flower from him.. It was really cool..

We timed this vacation just right to see the new Harry Potter world that just opened up in Universal Studios.. Of course I didnt really think it was worth the 1 hr wait to just get into the entrance which was short due to us being there very early in the morning to get in line.. The lines the week before were 6 hrs long, and then another 1 hr wait to go on the main ride which is a tour of the castle and then a fun 3D ride. It was fun but the waiting in the heat was hard.. And then there was the 2-3 hr wait just to get into Ollivanders wand shop which was ridicoulous.... In my opinion it isnt worth the wait to go through the entrance.. All they do is choose 1 boy out of the group of 20 that gets to go in at a time and they do a reinactment of the wand choosing the boy spill.. It was kind of cool in the fact that Austin was the boy they chose so it was exciting to see that but then they just let you wander the shop to buy souveniers and it is so crowded you cant even move and all the wands we wanted were sold out so we had to settle for the ones that were left.... Then we found out you could have just gone through the exit to come in the store and bypassed the whole 2-3hr wait to get in.. Owell at least we got to experience it..

Here is some picts of Hogwarts Castle and train. We wanted to try the Butterbeer but there was a 1-2 hr line for this too so we decided that after Ollivanders we would forgo the wait for a Butterbeer.. It looked good though.. We got to go into the Zanders Candy shop and got some sweets.. I highly reccomend you dont get the jellybelly beans,, they were really gross!! I think I actually got the vomit tasting one..

I really enjoed the universal studios over disney world.. Our days were limited so we did disney one day, Epcot the second day and Universal Studios and Adventure Island the 3rd and fourth day. It was so hot that we had to take breaks of going home and swimming to cool down and then go back to finish up the parks.. For little kids disney is probably better but for older kids the Universal I think is more fun.. I hear Busch Gardens is even better for older kids.. That will have to be next time...

As soon as we got home the kids started swimming lessons.. Logan was scared to death.. She worried about it the whole week before.. She hates to get her face wet.. She did pretty well. She passed the 1st class and now we have her in a second class just to get her more comfortable in the water.. This class is much harder though requiring her to actually learn some of the strokes and putting your face in the water and turning it to the side to breath.. Hopefully she will pass this one too.. She has improved alot since starting..

Jessie is doing well too.. We were only able to get her in 1 class which she passed. She is our child that is afraid of nothing.. She was jumping in at 3yrs of age with no life jacket and we would have to jump in after her to pull her off the bottom of the pool.

And then there was our next road trip to Palmyra N.Y we went 2 years ago and got to see all the historical sites but did not get a chance to see the Hill Cumorah pageant so we decided to head down there again to see it.. I wish I would have brought the camera to get some pictures.. It was really cool and the visual effects was awesome.. It was a really interesting event.. When you pull into the parking there are alot of anti mormon protesters there with their blow horns yelling out horrible things about mormons and our phrophets and about Jesus Christ.. They even had someone dressed up as the devil shouting and cursing..It was aweful.. The kids were really confused with why people would do this and it made them angry. Our little Logan was even scared at first and started to cry.. We had to try to explain the situation to her.. It made you just want to go over there and knock em out.. But then as you get closer and closer to the pageant area you can start to hear the tabernacle choir singing over the loud speakers and the feeling just turns peaceful.. It was so cool to hear our son say it was so awesome and he liked the feeling he felt while being there and watching it.. I love when the spirit touches my sons heart and he recognizes it.. It does not happen much so I really love it when he can experience it..

It was funny because on the way back to the car logan was walking through the parking lot with her fingers in her ears singing la la la I cant hear you as we passed the protesters.. It cracked us all up.. As we had to wait the long lines to get out of the parking lots we put on one of our Mormon Tabernacle Choir CD's and turned it up real loud with the windows unrolled to help drown out the sounds of the protesters.. We had alot of people give us the thumbs up sign... It was kind of cool we even got to see some people from our last ward in NJ there.. I am sure there were even more people there we knew possibly even from utah but with a crowd like that it would be hard to find them..

We went with another family in our ward.. We camped in the same KOA we stayed in last time.. We have not camped in our tent since we left Utah almost 3 years ago so we were so excited to actually camp.. Last time we stayed in their cabins so it wasnt quite the same.. It took us 10 hours to get there again with all the potty stops and 12 hours to get home due to meal brakes.. It felt actually worse then the trip to florida.. But we made it..

In this KOA they have an area that has a zip line and an obstacle course and big tree house fort.. The kids loved playing there.. They also have a big pond full of fish.. The kids had a great time fishing. Austin even made a group of friends there as he usually does wherever we go.. He never has problems making friends.. He even had a girlfriend there.. As soon as we pulled into camp they would be there waiting..

Logan was devastated she wasn't old enough to go on the zip line thus no picture of her.. But she did slay some fish!! She takes after her mother!!!! :)

Pausing for a quick family photo in the Sacred Grove.. It was cool because last time going through the Joseph Smith Farm all we could do was walk around the outside of the homes but because this was the week of the pageant they had tours going through the homes so we got to see the insides this time which was really cool..

Well that catches us up to the present.. We are finishing up our last 2 weeks of swimming lessons for Logan and Austin. Steve and I are getting certified in Scuba Diving which has been really fun.. Allie will be heading off to Girl's Camp the 1st of Aug, And we are anxiously all awaiting our next road trip to Utah in 2 weeks. We are planning to go camping with Steve's family up to our favorite spot in Flaming Gorge like we used to do every summer. Do some water skiing .. Then we are leaving the kids with Steve's mom and Dad and Brother and going with my mom and dad to hawaii for 10 days. I so cant wait.. We are going to stay in Maui and do some scuba diving, well a least Steve and I are.. My mom hasnt dove for many years. We are going to do a big 8 line zip line through some mountains very high in the air.. We are going to go to the Polynesian Culture Center and Pearl Harbor over in Oahu. And lots of R&R!! I just cant wait I am so excited..

I was hoping to have a bikini body by then but doesnt look like thats going to happen..Owell hopefully it will happen by the time we go back to utah at Christmas time.. Another road trip..

Not looking forward to the driving but cant wait to see family and do some camping and our trip to hawaii.. I will post pictures on that trip when we get back.. By the time we get back we will have 6 days left to get school shopping done and then School will start back up so it has been a very crazy busy summer for us..

Summer 2010 Catch UP

2010-07-19T12:54:00.009-04:00

Wow I have so been neglecting my blog.. This summer has been so very busy for us. It is flying by.... I thought I better get on here and do some catching up before it is over.. I have lots to post so this will probably be a part 1 of a part 2 post...

The school year went out with a bang.. Jessie had her second grade year end play.. Something about the Ammendments Buggy style!! She was a Bee and she had a little speaking part.. It was cute..

Then came Field Day.. I missed Austin's but was able to watch Jessie and Logan for a while..

Austin enjoyed his spring playing Baseball.. He got in some great plays and hits this year..

Memorial weekend we took them to a near by lake to do some fishing and swimming..

Finally The last day of school came.. Allie Kept a 4.0 grade average and made the honor roll the entire year.. straight A's..... wooo hoo we are so proud of her.. She got a few awards and will be rewarded with a special pin at an awards ceremony in the fall.. She was asked to be in an honor society club but had to decline due to our crazy summer plans.. We are so proud of her for her hard work and dedication..

Logan graduated from kindergarten .. Her last couple of days were spent partying and making crafts and eating and playing in the water.. Aaaahhh what a life....

Out here 6th grade goes into a middle school so Austin graduated from elementary school.. They make a pretty big deal for the 5th graders having an awards ceremony and big end of year party and a walking out of the school on the last day with all the other grades cheering them on.. It was pretty cool.. He made All A's and B's this year except for 1 C+ which was 2 points away from a B- so we are very proud of him to..He has improved so much this year..He is so smart and has the potential and ability to be a straight A student as well but of course he is a boy and right now friends, girls and image is everything right now.. We hope he stays somewhat grounded and keeps up the good work..

Unfortunatly Jessie is in a middle grade so they didnt have any special awards ceremonys but she has done remarkable this year with what she has accomplished and learned.. Her plate was very full this school year with all the homework and therapys she had to do. She finished up her vision therapy classes and is now working on a maintenance program. Her reading has vastly improved.. We still need to follow up with an audiologist to see how she is doing with her audio processing disorder but I have seen lots of improvement this year.. She deserves an A for effort.. She never gives up and always tries her hardest.. I wish things came as easy for her as it does the others. We are so proud of her.

Well in order to keep this post from taking forever to get through I will stop here and post part 2 tomorrow. Stay tuned for details on Logan's birthday with a road trip to Florida. Getting to see the new Harry Potter world at Universal, Our 2nd road trip to Palmyra to see the Hill Cumorah pageant and details on our future road trip to Utah.. Crazy busy summer!!!

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-08T20:46:00.003-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mother's out there that I have been so fortunate to associate with..

Steve decided to take me out fri. night to dinner for mother's day. We went to longhorn Steakhouse. It was so yummy.. After dieting all week I was so excited to go and have some real food.. I had prime rib and it was ohh so yummmy!! He then took me to Kohl's and bought me a shirt and capris.. Yea what woman doesnt love to get new clothes.. I was spoiled!! I have the best hubby...

He even ran around the block by my side thursday night as I am trying to learn to rollerblade.. Jessie got a pair and so I decided to get me a pair and learn so we can go together.. I was kind of nervous about falling and hurting my back so Steve ran along side of me to catch me if I was to fall.. Thankfully I didnt.. It's a very good workout for your legs.. I was dead just going around the block.. LOL

Looking forward to a relaxing day tomorrow, seeing my kids sing in the primary program. And hopefully having my family cook for me so I wont have too.. LOL

Have a great day!!!

A little add on.... I had the best Mother's Day today.. I woke up to my hubby making me the best omlet ever... He makes the best omlets... Yummy... Then my kids gave me their cards and gifts.. My son is 11 and everyhing is about being cool and having a cool image. Well he made me such a sweet card with all the mushy stuff in it that actually made me cry.. It felt so good to hear those kind of words from him.. That was my bubba I know and miss.. He can be so darn sweet when he wants to be.. Allie got me my favorite lotions from bath and body.. Stress reliever euclyptus and spearament.. yummmm... and Jessie made me a journal and pen in her activity days.. I have never had a real journal except when I was a kid so I am so excited to use it.. And Logan made me the sweetest card in school that they painted with their hands.. Her little hand was the flower and then there was a stem with the hill of her hands to make the leaves.. so cute.. I also got some coupon books from jessie and Austin for things like good for 1 free foot massage or they will make a dinner or a day with no fighting hmm (We will see how that goes)... All sorts of stuff.. Cant wait to use them.. I have the best kids!!! They sang so good and loud for the primary number they did for all the mother's.. There was a little fighting today but they tried real hard to make my day special... I love them so much...................

Drip Drip Drop Little April Showers

2010-05-03T19:58:00.001-04:00

Well April is famous for rain showers and so far it has rained every day of the month so far.. We have had quite a bit.. Plus the temps have been back up in the 70's so it has been warm and muggy.. We had to sleep down in the basement last night because it was much cooler and more comfortable for sleeping... I dont think it's quite time to turn on the AC.. Tonight the temps are starting to drop so we have all the windows open to cool down and it feels really nice.

Not much to report lately.. We had a church activity Sat. It was a 50's sock hop and it was really fun to dress up and try and dance. The kids really had a great time.. The girls love to have daddy dance with them.. Other then that things have been pretty quiet.. I got a good run in today.. 4.7 miles total.. Walked about a mile of that so I'm starting to get back out there and get back into running. Hoping that my body will continue to cooperate and have no injurys this year...

Anyways thats about it.. hope to have more to post soon..

Start of 2010

2010-04-19T20:50:00.003-04:00

Well it looks like I have neglected my poor blog again.. Have a little catching up to do... And now that family is gone( boo hoo I miss having them here) I can finally do a little catching up on my computer time..

So let's begin with January... On the 13th I had back surgery on my lower back to repair 2 herniated bulging discs. When I fractured my hip I started having back problems at the same time and found out that I had 2 herniated discs. One which was pretty bad and was pinching my sciatic nerve and causing me a lot of pain. I ended up in the E.R with such scruciating pain tha it took 3 shots of pain killers the last being morphine on top of the 10 mg of lortab that I had already taken at home to finally calm it down.. Can we say overdose!!! I have never been so drugged in my life.. Even then I still felt the pain. It was the worst thing I have ever gone through.. So anyway after my parents went home after christmas, 2 weeks later my mom came back to help take care of me and my family while I recooped.. The doctor said I had the worst herniated discs he has ever seen in 25 years.. I also had alot of debris floating around my nerve so he was able to shave the discs and clean all the stuff up.. It went really well and I finally have feeling back in my leg and foot.. Yeah!!!

It has been a very slow recovery. 2 steps forward and 1 back.. I have finally finished up my physical therapy as of last week and I am doing pretty good.. I have got the OK to get back into my fitness regimen as long as I go slow and take it easy and gradually work into it.. So for the last couple of weeks I have started speed walking/ running and it has felt so good to get back out.. Today was absolutly amazing.. I was able to run about 2 miles total with walking in between and it felt great.. I am a little stiff and sore but nothing to bad.. I cant wait to get back to running long distances again..

February was a big month for us.. Jessies Birthday was on the 2nd and she turned 8.. She was so excited to get baptized.. Grandma Palmer gave her a prettiest white dress for her special day.. We sent her on a treasure hunt to find all her presents.

We also got alot of snow for winter this year and we built a huge slide that ran off our driveway and down the hill.. The kids had a blast taking their sleds down it.. We even had all the kids in the neighborhood showing up to play on it..

Jessie on her baptism day.. She looked so beautiful.

Then on the 27th it was Allie's 13th birthday.. I now officially have a teenage girl!! Heaven help me!! She was a little dissapointed this year for her birthday. We were supposed to take her and some friends to the rec center to go swimming and have a pizza party but she came down sick and was running a fever so we had to cancel the party. :( But she was pretty excited to get her team Edward shirt...

Instead of cake she opted for her favorite double fudge brownies this year..

Then came March... My mom had to finally go back home after staying with us since practically December.. We had so much fun with her here though.. We miss her so much... And then Steve's parents came 2 days prior to my mom leaving so they could be here for Jessie's baptism as well.. It was so good to have them come out.. This was the first time they have actually came and stayed with us since we moved from Utah. We had lots of fun with them here and wish we could of had a little more time with them. There was so much we wanted to show them but just couldnt fit it all in... Then came Easter. It was nice to have it over Conference weekend so there was no rush to get up and look for eggs before going to church..

We had our first outdoor meal on our deck Easter afternoon. It was so good. I made a ham, funeral potatoes, deviled eggs, a big vegetable platter and a rainbow jellow salad. It was delish.. But it just wasnt the same not being able to share it with our extended family.. It's really hard to be away from our family's for the holidays...

And now here we are and it already towards the end of April.. Where has the time gone? It's just flying by... The kids are getting so excited that there is only 2 more months of school left. We have had some great weather over the past month.. Last week it got up to 81... Wow it was actually hot but then 2 days later it was in the 30's and snowing.. What is up with that?? Crazy spring weather.. It is so beautiful here with all the flowers coming out and the blossoms om the trees blooming and the lawns greening up.. I just love this time of year.. However after running outside today I came down with the worst case of allergies I have had in years and nothing seems to be helping. I took a claritin earlier and 2 benadryls tonight and still dont feel much better.. I just barely finished up antibiotic for a sinus infection I have been struggeling with for the last week or so so I am hoping its not the infection coming back but it feels diffrent so I am pretty sure its allergies, but i just feel so miserable.... Hope it dont last long...

So thats our first of the year review and catch-up... I tink now that things have calmed down a little here I will be able to keep up with my blogging a little better now... Hopefully I didnt loose too many of my bloggy friends..

Until next time.. Happy Spring Everyone!!

Major Catching Up and the Holidays!!

2010-01-07T09:41:00.015-05:00

Oh wow I am so behind on here.. I'm afraid this is going to be a super long post to get all the catching up I need to do.. I have been such a slacker lately..

Well I have to apologize. I put all the pictures on here in the wrong order so we are going to have to work backwards in time..

My parents were able to come out here to spend the Christmas and New Year holiday with us.. It was so great having them here. And so much help. I only felt bad that the last week they were here I was down alot and we were not able to go and do some of the things I had wanted to do.. More about that to come..

So anyways here is my mom Christmas day.. My dad and Steve and I have been planning a trip to Hawaii for the whole year to give to my mom for Christmas.. It was so hard to keep it a secret all year. she would continually say she never goes anywhere and we should just book a trip and go.. It would be so hard to say just wait and kinda have to hee hom around and make excuses of why we couldn't go.. LOL so we didn't have all the trip finalized yet so we ended up getting her a magazine brochure on Hawaii to give to her. At first she didn't get it she was like why am I getting a magazine on Hawaii...
And then with a little hinting it finally sunk in.. She was so totally surprised.. It was great.. Sorry mom I had to post the pictures.. She threatened me not to post them but I just had to..
Steve was keeping busy trying to get everything caught on tape..
Me and my dad and Steve were planning on going Ice Fishing while they were here and since Santa knows everything I ended up with an ice fishing pole and some bait..
even Lucky got some nice treats in his sock from Santa!!
oh crap I dont know what I pushed to make it underline everything and I have no idea how to get it off.. Anyways I wasn't real great on getting very many good picts since I was dishing out the presents but here is the best one of the kids with some of their loot.

Grandpa always has to start his mornings off with a cup of hot chocolate!!

Allie is so into Twilight and New Moon so she got a ton of twilight stuff.

This was a picture of our Christmas tree just after we got it decorated up. I bought all new ornaments for it this year since I hadn't bought any for several years. I really like how it turned out. We actually got 2 tree's this year.. Our big artificial one below wouldnt really fit upstairs in our great room so we put it down stairs and decided to start a new family tradition. We went to a nearby tree farm and took a trailer ride out to the orchards of pine trees and got to choose the perfect one and cut it down ourselves. Then they take you back to the lodge for hot choc and can go meet santa. Our family had a blast and thought it would be great to do every year. So we ended up getting a little bit smaller one to put upstairs. And the best part was I let the kids decorate this one with all the ornaments they have collected over the years and they thought that was pretty special, not to mention the fresh smell of pine was an added bonus!! Of course I am horrible with bringing my camera to such funtions that I didnt get any picts nor did I even get one of the final product of the real tree. I know I am a loser!! Owell at least I got some of the atificial one..

Ok so that was our Christmas and now to our Thanksgiving.. We were kind of bummed because we were not going anywhere and nobody was coming here for Thanksgiving so we were not as excited for turkey day It ended up being a blessing in disguise when you find out what happened..... Our month of November was pretty Crazy.. Austins Birthday was on the 9th and we had a little party for him at a basketball/arcade place.. It was pretty fun for him and of course his dumb mother forgot her camera so we didn't get any pictures of it.. At least we did get some pictures of his little family celebration.

Then Steve's birthday was on the 14th. Which wasn't so fun for him.. He finally came down with the swine or at least a very bad flu so the day of his birthday he still wasn't feeling so hot..

Then to top the rest of the month off.. For the week of thanksgiving the kids brought some guest with them...Yep you guessed it LICE!!! Oh gross me out... It was so horrible.. What really pisses me off was 2 weeks prior Jessie had started itching her head alot and Steve looked at it and said he saw a bug in her hair.. I said oh maybe its just from playing outside on the playground but we did take her to a dermatologist anyways and he took one quick look at the top of her head and said oh its just dry scalp start using a dandruff shampoo so we were relieved and of course figured he knew what he was talking about and had her start washing her hair with denorex.. Then 2 weeks later on Thanksgiving break She is still itching alot and Logan is just scratching her head to the point its bleeding. Steve got after them and said quit itching your head. We took them in the bathroom to look and their heads were just covered in them.. I about puked.. I went into a frantic panic.. I called their pediatrician and got an appt for the next morning and confirmed it was indeed lice. Then started our horrible week of vacation.. We had to bag up all their toys, stuffed animals, bedding, sleeping bags that they had slept in in the last couple week just everything... We probably had 12-15 huge yard garbage bags of miscellaneous stuff, because not only did we find it in the girls but we also found it in the other 2 kids and also found 1 or 2 nits on me so we practically bagged our whole house.. Then we started the whole laundry fiasco.. We probably did 40-50 loads of laundry that week. Our Washer and Dryer was constantly going the whole week. We thought they would probably burn out on us.. Every day we had to was their bedding and clothes and pajamas.. And everyday we vacuumed the whole house and sprayed everything down. We had to vacuum all the cars.. It was such a nightmare. So on top of all this cleaning we had to do daily picking through their hair to remove all the nits which are tiny tiny tiny little eggs left by the lice..

Never having this before we didn't know to what extreme measures we had to take and we heard all the horror story's of how the lice shampoos didn't work and many people experience a second outbreak then you have to start all over so we were freaked.. So we would start in the morning after breakfast. Steve would take 1 kid and I would take the second kid and we would go through their hair little sections hair at a time to pick out and remove these nits that are like glued to a strand of hair and are extremely difficult to see so you really have to have alot of light and look at every strand of hair.. The first night there was so many in the 2 youngest girls and of course they have the most hair and with Jessies major thick hair it took us all night.. 4 hours of picking through it and pulling the nits off with your finger nails.. I just cried because it was so overwhelming with how much they had. Poor logan would fall asleep while we picked through her hair. It was midnight by the time we finished going through their hair that first night..

Starting on the second day we would go their hair twice so we would do 1 3hr session after breakfast, break for lunch, then switch kids and start all over again.. we found that if I did say Jessies hair the first time then steve did it the second time it gave us better chances of getting more nits because we would both have our own way of parting through their hair so we would always find more nits that the other one missed. So take in mind we had to do (2) 3 hr checks on them and dont forget the other 2 kids everyday.. So this is 6 hrs a day per child and we have 4.. Austin was much easier being that he was a boy. We just shaved his head the first night to a buzz cut which made going through his hair alot faster...

So by the time we would finish up with the kids hair checks and all the cleaning and laundering everyday it would usually be close to 11 or 12 midnight then of course once we got them into bed steve and I would have to check each others hair.. which mine of course which is long and thick took a couple hours too.. We didn't do quite as thorough checks on us as we did with the kids because steve never did have any nits and I only had like 1 or 2 so we tried to do just the bare minimum with us.. Still by the time we would finally crawl in bed it was like 1 or 2 in the morning.. Then we would start all over again every day for a whole week.. It was so exhausting..

This picture was when steve told logan to put her nose on the lamp so she would hold still cuz it was so hard to get her to sit still for 3 hrs at a time then have to do it again later in the day.. The kids were truly amazing sitting there pretty much the whole day.. We brought a little portable tv with a dvd player in with us and that helped us out immensely with getting the kids to hold still..

We were barely lucky to even get a turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day.. we were just going to put it off to the following day because we were just so consumed with all this but I managed to get the turkey in the oven on our lunch break and we finally were able to sit down for our turkey feast late that night.. It was pretty sad but you do what you gotta do I guess..

Later after the whole ordeal we found out that we didn't quite have to go to the extent we did with all the cleaning.. But at least we were very thorough and our house was the cleanest house in the neighborhood for that week and we didn't get any re infestations so that made it worth it I guess.. It was kind of funny because you have to leave all your bagged stuff bagged for like 3 weeks so just when my parents arrived for Christmas we were able to unbag all our stuff and it was like having an early Christmas.. The kids were so excited to see all their toys they hadn't been able to play with and had pretty much forgotten about.. They were so excited!!!

Now to the present.. Well as you my followers know I had fractured my hip the end of August and then found out I had 2 herniated discs in my back that was pinching my sciatic nerve. It has been a very hard time for me physically for the past 4 months.. My hip finally healed and started feeling better in November however my back has continued to get worse. I started doing spinal injections the first week of December and had 1 done about every 2 weeks along with Physical Therapy to try and help alleviate the pain but to no avail they did not work.. after my 2nd and 3rd injections I started taking a turn for the worse and was starting to have more pain. On new years eve day I had my last injection which was thursday and by Sat I was in the hospital.. I had gotten up that morning and could feel that it was going to be a bad day with it. I went to bend over slightly to lift the toilet lid and it pinched my nerve so bad I was in alot of pain.. So I hobbled to the kitchen to load up on my 20 mg of Lortab which if any of you are familiar with pain medication that is one hefty dose of pain med.. More then what they usually give you after most surgerys.. But this was what the Dr.s told me to take. I had been taking this high of dose for probably a week. Then I hobbled to the shower thinking maybe the hot water would relax things up a bit.. Wrongo!! I couldnt even bend or lift my legs to even soap off.. I was in so much pain I just cried the whole shower.. When I got out I bent slightly to just pull some toilet paper of the roll to wipe my tears and that movement dang near killed me. Once again it squeezed the nerve so tight it was just excruciating.. I cried out to my mom or Steve to help me get dressed because I couldnt even move. They got me all dressed and shipped me off to the hospital ER which was another horrible joke in itself.. The Dr. forgot about me. Several times!! And get this to top it off he told me my results of my urine test then came back and blutly told me he had lied to me that he didnt know where my urine was put and that they would go try and find it..

This was pretty much how the whole day went.. They ended up giving me 2 shots of pain medication through my arm muscle then had to start an IV to give me another injection of pain meds before I was released.. So on top of all that I had already taken at home I was higher then a kite. They had called my Neurosurgeon from the hospital and he never bothered to call or come in.. we had previously sched an appt with another Neurosurgeon for a second opinion earlier in the week but couldnt get in with him until next week.. We didnt even think to have him paged because he had never seen me before so we didnt think about it, But come to find out he was actually the Dr. on call that day and he said if he would have been paged like he actually was supposed to have been because he was the on call Dr. for that day but the ER didnt do it he said he would have operated on me then.. DANG!! So long story short I was able to get in with him on Tuesday and have scheduled to have surgery on the 13th next weds.. So now if I can only stay down and get through the week. The thing that sucked was those last few days while my parnets were here I was down so we couldnt go do anything but it was such a blessing to have them there while all this was going on... And actually my mom bless her heart will be coming back out the last week of January to help with my recovery so that is another blessing.. I have such wonderful parents... My dad is actually having surgery the same day I am.. He is having his knee replaced so that is why this has all been so hard because she needs to be home to help take care of my dad. So hopefully he will have recovered enough by the time my mom comes out to help out here.. What a crazy couple of months hu?????

At last this is why I have not been on here so much hence all the catch up.. And who knows when I will get back on here again at least for a while until after my recovery.. Sorry for this being so long and detailed.. I will try better to get on here more often.
I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and is having a wonderful start to the brand new year.. Here is to a better new year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Halloween Week Catch Ups

2009-11-02T11:11:00.013-05:00

Ok so here is a little catch up for the past couple weeks.. The week before Halloween we or at least the kids got swine flu all but Austin.. Allie was the first to start with fevers of 105 and nasty cold symptoms then it spread to Jessie and Logan and finally me, but by the time it got to me I think I just got the cold symptoms of it.. I never got a fever or the body aches and pains just the good old cough and congestion and runny nose.. It was a very long week.. each of the 3 girls missed a week of school.

Logans idea of not having to blow her nose so much during her rough week of flu.. Alas we all got over it just in time for Halloween. Remember you can click on pictures to get bigger view.

Here my little pioneer girls are wanting to help me make some homemade bread. They had a field day helping knead the bread..

A little oddly shaped but they came out tasting so good.. I was very happy with the taste and texture.

Here is logan almost everyday about 2 hrs after she gets home from school.. school days are long days for her still..

Family Home Evening Pumpkin Carving Time!!

The Master Carver!! The kids and I clean the pumpkins out and Steve does most of the carving.. Austin actually did most of his pumpkins carving this year.. Dad is always so miticulouse.. It's usually a several hour job.. I forgot to take picts of the finished work but they were awesome...

The week of Halloween was dress up days for the kids at school. So by Weds finally everybody was well enough to go back to school and it was Wacky Weds. So we did the kids hair all up crazy and had the girls wear their clothes backwards and inside out, and Austin wore a dress but ended up taking it off shortly after he got there because to many kids made fun of him.. I swear kids are so mean these days.. All week he was made fun of for something.. I felt so bad he came home and said they did this kind of stuff all the time in Utah and everybody did it and out here all they do is tease you and make fun of you.. I felt so bad.. He was so looking forward to these days of dressing up and now it's totally ruined for him..

The kids had a Halloween parade at school so I was able to get a shot of each of them with their class.. Here is my little vampire girl.

Our little Pioneer girl or Laura Ingles as she would say.

And our Ozzy Ozbourne.

Getting ready to go trick or treating.. Out here there is a law that all kids have to be in by 8:00 PM so we had to get an early start.. Plus it was really windy and cold thus the gloves so the kids tuckered out pretty quick.. I kind of like the idea of a curfew for halloween night.. I think its alot safer for the kids.... It was really strange though because like in Utah I would buy like 6-7 bags of candy and be out withinn 2-3 hrs and have to end up shutting my lights off and turning kids away.. Since this was our first Halloween in MI I wasnt sure what to expect.. I bought like 6 bags and ended up only having like 7-8 trick or treaters and that was it so i have all this left over candy ontop of what the kids got.. And man oh man did they score out here.. Our neighborhood has alot of nice big homes in it and everyone was giving out like full sized candy bars and kittles and starbursts and bads of chips it was crazy... The kids made a hauling..

I didnt get to make a big halloween dinner like I was wanting too but I did get a recipe for this worm jello I just had to try and it turned out to be a pretty good success almost to much because my kids wouldnt eat it because it looked to real I guess.. I was a little dissapointed with the purplish color. Next time i think I will do red jello instead I think it would have made it more real looking. But I think they turned out pretty good if I do say so myself..

For an update on my hip injurys go here to see my other blog.

Life taken over by facebook

2009-10-16T22:49:00.004-04:00

I know its been a while since I have been on here.. Sad to say my life has seriously been taken over by facebook now.. With trying to run a cafe as head chef and harvesting and plowing my farms on farmville and farm town, trying to keep my fish alive in fish world, trying to get my island established in Island Paradise, and trying to get my apartment decorated in Yoville, and trying to keep in touch with all my buddies I just dont have time for anything else.. I seriously could spend all day on the computer.. Since I have been prisoned to my home with my injurys I pretty much do spend alot of time on the computer.. But I just wanted all my bloggy friends to know I havn't forgotten them and I hope to get a little better with posting a little more frequently since I do try and consider this as my journal writing..

I finally met with the neurosurgeon today. I found out I actually have two herniated discs in my back one is just a small bulge and the other is quite bigger and is pushing on the nerve so my reccomendations were to start seeing a pain management specialist who deals with alternatives for pain rather then surgery. I will start with some physical therapy and possibly some injections in my hip or back to try and ease the pain with the pinched nerve. And then if after a month if it hasnt gotten better then we will discuss having surgery but I am hoping it wont come to that and the physical therapy and shots will take care of it.. It already is improving slightly so I have hope that it wont come down to surgery but I tell you I would just about do anything to get rid of this pain it has been so miserable.. To not be able to sit, walk, lay, bend over, get dressed or pretty much anything without pain has been a nightmare.. It really makes you realize and appreciate being able to do the little things such as these.. I cant believe how bad the pain was in the beginning.. I would just break down crying because I didnt know what else to do and I was in so much pain and pain pills and muscle relaxers wouldnt even touch the pain.. At least now I can sleep at night and walk somewhat normally.

As far as my other fractured hip it has been 2 months now and it still hasnt fully healed yet.. I think alot of it had to do with not staying on the crutches like I was supposed to because it seemed to increase the pain with the pinched nerve so I have been walking on it and bearing weight on it which has not allowed it to heal and then the medication they gave me for my back actually stops the healing process so it too is still having some pain it in.. I have to meet back with the Dr. next week to see what he says.. I know he told me to go back on the crutches until i can walk without having pain but I just cant seem to go back to the crutches I can deal with the pain of the fractured hip more then I can deal with the pain of the pinched nerve so I guess I will wait and see what happens.. hopefully they wont have to go in and put screws into my hip because of the bone not healing... So what a mess I have been the last couple months.. I am so ready to be over all this already.. I really miss being active and being able to do the simple things like chase my kids or go shopping or to just be able to get dressed in the morning without horrible pain, let alone I am really missing being able to go running and weight lift.. I felt so much better when I was staying active. I was eating better and drinking water now that has all gone down the drain and I have watched all the muscle tone leave my body again and it's very depressing.. Soon winter will be here and it is so hard to stay active when it is so cold and snowy outside.. Blllaaahhhh
Owell hoping this will be over soon and just be a faint memory..

Last weekend steve had a walk for diabetes fundraiser at the detroit zoo and we were all supposed to go walk. So steve rented a wheelchair and pushed me the whole 5 miler and then we spent the rest of the morning walking around the zoo and seeing the animals.. It was really cold though.. When we left it was a balmy 28 degrees and and finally made it up to 34 by the time we started the walk. I had 5 layers of clothing on and still was cold but I think its because I had to sit the whole time in the chair instead of walk.. But it still ended up being a beautiful day.

My guys went to a scout overnighter camp out so it has just been me and the girls so we made popcorn and watched a movie and had ourselves a little girls night out.. I feel bad for the guys they are probably freezing their little tooshes off in the tent right now.. The high was only supposed to be in the mid 40's and the nights have been dipping down to the low 30's high 20's.. Hope they dont freeze!!

Halloween, Pinched nerve

2009-09-30T08:54:00.003-04:00

Halloween!!

Yeah I love this month.. I was so excited to get my halloween page and music up.. This year I bought a little christmas tree that fits on my lamp table that I am using as a year round tree for all the holidays. I have it all decorated up with pumpkin and spider lights it looks pretty cool.. I still want to add more stuff to it but I need to wait until I get all my halloween decorations out to see what all I have.. I still have been under the weather lately and have been trying to take it easy..

I am still trying to get over a nasty cold we have been passing around here for the last week or so.. I just hate colds.. Also still having some problems with my fracture in my hip.. Doctor said the xrays show that there is new bone on the hip he didnt see before so it does show it is healing but it still is painful at times.. I am hoping to give up the crutches by tomorrow.. Speaking of which..... Because I have been using the crutches it has thrown my back off a little and has irritated a pinched nerve I had in my butt on the other hip which is causing some serious pain right now so I have been so miserable because I have pain on both sided of my hip now and it hurts to walk, lay sit, bend over, anything...... It has been so miserable.. It seems like not matter what I do I cant get comfortable or lay in any position to take the pinch off the nerve.. The doctor put me on some prednizone saying it should take care of the pinched nerve pain but so far I am on day 3 now of that medication and it's still not helping.. I have this radiating pain all the way down my leg and into my foot.. I just about cant stand it anymore.. I have been messed up with hip and leg problems now for 6 weeks and I am so ready for it to be over with..

The bad thing with taking the prednizone it slows down the healing process in the fracture of the other hip so I still have to be careful. But he said if I can walk without pain I can get off the crutches so I am trying it out today.. I tried using a cane this morning but it didnt work to well it didnt give me the relief of the leg as I was hoping it would so I am just going to try and walk it out and see how it does.. If the prednizone doesnt work for the nerve then we are going to have to do more testing like a MRI to see if we can find out exactly whats going on with it.. I am really hoping the prednizone will start working soon. I am so tired of hurting with every little move I make..

So much for the idea of thinking that it was going to be so great with the kids in school and being able to go running in the mornings and go and do whatever I wanted.. so far all I have done since school started is stay home and stay down waiting for my hips to heal.. And now the weather is starting to get nasty and cold and soon enough winter will be here and I wont be running outside anyways.. Blaaaagghhh What a waste.... Just when you try and do something good for your body it backfires on ya....

Owell theres my pity party complaining for the day.. Sorry to bore you all with the details.. I'm just so ready to be better again.... On a good note I have the best family.. My kids and hubby have been such a wonderful help for the last 6 weeks with the meals and all the little things the mother has to do in a day.. They follow me around and make sure I am using my crutches and chastize me when I'm not... They make me lay down and take it easy and that has been super nice.. Steve had to go out of town for work this week so my ward has been so wonderful and brought meals in for me while he is away so I didnt have to worry about dinners so that was such a huge relief and so very thoughtful... One thing about the church wards out in the east well out of utah for that matter is most of us are away from our familys so we really count on each other for our times of need and we really become a great close ward family.. It's nice to know there is always someone there to help no matter where you are...

Much Awaited Catchups +Vacation Updates..

2009-09-22T10:13:00.012-04:00

Ok so this has been a long time coming.. I had some picts on a camera I couldn't get to transfer on my computer so I finally took them in and had them burned to a disk. So now I am doing a catchup on them all..

So back in May just as I was packing up to move I recieved this wonderful gift from a friend in Utah for winning her baby guessing contest.. How awesome is that?? Thanks Chelsea!!

Right before I moved One of my best friends from Utah came to visit and we went and had a girls night out in NY.. It was so fun..
Central Park.

Rockefeller Plaza

Ok so this is crazy.. We were crossing the street and we hear this loud explosion right next to us and we couldnt figure out what it was. It scared the crap out of us we thought at first it was a gun shot. we were looking around and saw this.. A transponder from under the ground had blown. right next to where we were standing.. If we would have been a second earlier it would have got us.. soon were were being asked to get away that it could blow and soon fire fighters and cops were showing up and taping the area off as we were watching.. The smoke and rumbling kept getting higher and louder. It actually blew a few more times as we were there.. It was kinda freaky!!

Looking off the Empire State Building.

Standing on the top of Empire!!

Empire State Building..

We went and saw the broadway play wicked and it was the best play I have ever seen not that I have seen more then two but it was so awesome.. definently worth seeing..

Night life in NY..

Ok so here is the picts I promised a while ago from our vacations.. Sorry this is so long. There was so much to catch up on. There were so many other ones I wanted to put on here but for some reason my camera transferred them in NEF format and blogger will not upload any files in that format. I have tried to open them up in paint and re save them as a jpeg but my comp wont allow me to do it and I have no idea why... I have no clue as to why my comp is transferring them in that format and I am not camera savvy enough to figure it out.. Anyone have any idea?? Anyways this is what I had that were in the jpeg format that blogger would upload... The one day at macinac I had forgotten my camera so my mom has all the picts.. She did send me a couple that I have put on here and the rest I will have to add later..

Mackinac Island doing our 8 mile bike tour around the island.. Stopped on one of the beaches to throw rocks in the water.. The water was so beautiful and clear..

I cant remember what the name of this site was but it had a beautiful arch with the lake in the background..

Coming over to the Island on the ferry we got this shot.. The Govenors Mansion is in the background I believe..

This was carthage Jail where the prophet Joseph Smith was murdered. The top window is where he fell out of when he was shot.

Austin standing by the door where the bullet came through and killed Josephs brother Hyrum.

This was the brick house where the saints got their bricks to build their homes in Nauvoo.

A view of the Mississippi River from the back yard of the Joseph Smith Farm house.

As we were walking down the trail of tears Austin was practicing his roping skills.

One of the places along the trail of tears where the saints camped waiting their turn to cross the Mississippi river.

Grandpa and Allie tuckered out from all the walking we did..

The Joseph Smith Farm.

The door at carthage Jail..

The room that the prophet Joseph and the men with him spent their first night..

I had much prettier picts of the temple but again they were in the wrong format.. It is a very beautiful temple.

Brigham Young and Joseph Smith overlooking Nauvoo

It was a great time!!

Diagnosis/ Relief

2009-09-17T16:58:00.003-04:00

Well I had to go back to the Orthopedist today to get the results of my bone scan and it was actually a relief.. We finally have a diagnosis.. I have a stress fracture on my femoral neck.. Its the bone that is under the hip and connects to the femur. It's serious in the fact that if it continues to break clear through they would have to do 1 of 3 things. I would either need a hip replacement or they would have to go through the hip with a big screw into the bone or they would have to go in and replace the bone.. The Doctor said that is kinda serious for someone my age plus it can cause blood restriction to the head which is not a good thing so he want to take serious measures to make sure I dont further injure it so I have to be on crutches for a month.. I can drive but thats it. No weight bearing on it for a month..

Whats even crazier is I have been doing all this walking on it for the past 5 weeks now with all the touring of northern michigan with my family and that was when I was in so much pain and really needed the crutches... And now after i have been walking on it htis whole time now they expect me to totally stay off it and use crutches for a month.. Right!!! ARRGGHH

How do you do this when you have 4 kids and all the little stuff a mother has to do in a day.. It is going to be very difficult to say the least.. Owell at least they know that I am not crazy when I have been telling them that it still really hurts and that it doesnt feel like its getting as better as it should... So it's kinda relief.. I was worried that they were going to just tell me it was a pulled muscle and get over it...

Well here's to being a gimp for a while..

Beautiful Imperfections

2009-09-14T21:40:00.002-04:00

Sorry couldnt figure out how to get the clip to play on my blog.. Its definently worth watching!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw0s4C0g5SM

1st day of School

2009-09-09T12:25:00.015-04:00

I'm a little late getting this on here but Our first day of school was exceptionally hard on the kids.. Not only was it the first day of school but grandma and grandpa was leaving to go back home to utah after spending the last month with us traveling around MI.. It was so good to get our grandma and grandpa fix!! So all the girls were crying well actually they had started the night before.. Made getting on the bus kinda hard but they did pretty good... I had forgotten my camera to get a picture of allie before we had to rush out to the bus stop at 7:00 Am so my mom got one of her and I will have to post it on here at a later time...

This was Logan's first day of kindergarten she was very nervous but excited too.. Luckily for the first day it was only a couple hours and I got to go along with her.. They just started all day kindergarten here for the first time so it was all new for everyone.. I dont know who was more worried me or her.. She is still so little and I just couldnt imagine her making it through a whole day of school.. But come Weds it was the official 1st long day and she did awesome.. She said she had a great time and couldnt wait to go back... She enjoyed riding the bus for the first time but she was quite upset that it didnt have a seat belt for her.. LOL Oh my baby is growing up!! With all the kids in school now I have so much time by myself I almost dont know what to do with myself... Celebrate good times c'mon!!!!!!!! Ha hahaha..

Anyways they all seem to like their teachers so far so that is always a good thing..

So I have had a rough few weeks.. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that I had gotten another injury.. Yes again!!! I think I was lifting to much weight with my leg and had pulled a muscle and then went running on it a couple times with some more weights trying to stick with my training schedule for the half marathon I registered for.. Anyways I have been in pretty bad pain in my hip and leg.. And all the walking around we have been doing while traveling hasnt helped to much... Anyways last week I had seen a Orthopedist who gave me a bursa shot in my hip thinking I had some bursitis going on.. After a couple days it seemed to help a bit with the hip but not much with my leg. So they are sending me for a bone scan tomorrow to see if I could possibly have a stress fracture.. I dont think I do but I thought I better have it checked just in case.. I think its just a really bad pulled muscle... It is starting to feel a little better but I still havnt totally been able to walk yet without a limp and it still is pretty sore.. It has been 5-6 weeks now since I originally hurt it so it is really taking its own sweet time to heal.. I am so bummed because now I will not be able to participate in what would have been my first half Marathon. Owell I guess there will always be another one hopefully.... With the kids in school I was so looking forward to doing my runs without having to worry about the kids being home alone so I am really hoping it wont take to much longer to heal so I can get back out there before it turns winter.. The leaves are already changing out here and the weather has been so nice and cool.. Mid 70's for highs so perfect running weather in the mornings.. It has been 4 weeks since I have ran and it is so killing me right now.. I am starting to feel like I am going back out of shape.. Although since I have stopped running and lifting weights I have dropped 3 pounds.. Go figure!! I dont know which I like more having the bigger stronger leaner muscles (well that was my goal anyways) or weighing less.. Why cant I have both?? Waaaaaaa

Tomorrow I plan to do some major catching up with some of the pictures from our recent trips and some previose ones done before we moved.. I didnt want to make this to unbearably long...

Until then...

Vacation 2009

2009-09-01T21:22:00.004-04:00

We have been so busy with my family being here and all the little trips we have been taking that I have not had much of a chance to get on here... I havnt got my pictures downloaded yet to post but I will get some on here eventually..
We had a wonderful time in Nauvoo Illinoise.. Getting to see all the church history sites and learning more about our pioneers was so cool.. We even were able to find out the plots where Steve's 3rd great grandparents lived in Nauvoo and was able to get a CD of records on them.. That was really cool to know we had family that was there with the prophet.. Going to Carthage Jail was a very spiritual visit for me.. I could really feel the spirit strongly there.. It's amazing what the saints went through and endured back then.. It was so sad to walk down the road which was called the trail of tears and read some words of journal entry's given from some of the saints who were leaving nauvoo and crossing the Mississippi. Very sad!!
It was truly amazing what these people did and invented to work and survive out there..These people worked so hard from sun up to sun down.. We truly are a rich people and never had it so good.. I just cant believe how hard life was back then for our pioneers..

We were so lucky to be there the last week before all the youth missionarys left to go back to school.. They were so talented. They put on several shows throughout the day plus work the visitor sites as well.. They were so amazing they all sang exceptionally well and danced and most of them played musical instruments.. Very talented young people.. We only wish we could have been there to see the pageant.. The weather was perfect when we were there..

We also enjoyed Mackinac Island last week.. Thursday we went and toured the island got to go on a carriage ride to all the historical spots of the island. We were able to go to Fort Mackinaw and learn some of the history of the soldiers and the war they had there.. We did the 8 mile bike ride around the island along the coast which was absolutely beautiful. I really wish I could go run the loop.. Maybe someday.. Friday and Sat was not so hot. The weather turned cold and rainy and these were the days we were to go to petowsky and Traverse city which are real touristy spots with lots of shops and stuff but because of the constant downpour we didnt get to see much.. We ended up coming home a day early due to the weather not cooperating..

We were supposed to go camping at a state park this week off of Lake Michigan but again due to the cooler weather here mid 70's for the high and low to mid 40's for a low we ended up vetoing that idea as well.. I'm kinda bummed.. We havnt gone camping since we lived in Utah so we have been really bummed about that.. We sold our boat so we dont have that anymore either.. Now with living around all these lakes we wish we still had it.. Maybe someday we will get another one.. So now we are trying to figure out what else is there to go and do for the kids last few days of freedom before they start school again..

I sustained a injury in my hip and groin a couple weeks ago and has been really nasty. I have been limping around for 2 weeks now.. I injured it I think during some weight lifting and then some long runs.. Now I am really bummed because I dont think I am going to be able to do the half marathon I have been training for.. The race is in 3 weeks and I still cant even walk without limping and being in pain so who knows when I am going to be able to run again.. I am going to see an orthopedist tomorrow and will hopefully find something out.. I would think after 2 weeks I would be starting to get better but it really hasnt improved much.. I have never had an injury like this before it really sucks.. The more I walk on it the more it hurts.. I was on crutches the first day i injured it. And still have times where I feel like I could still really use them.. I have been seeing a chiropractor but it hasnt done much for my hip.. I am really hoping the Orthopedist can do something for me.. The hardest part is not being able to be active.. I was running 3-4 times a week and riding my bike on the other days and lifting weights and now I cant seem to do a dang thing without making it hurt worse.. And my body is really feeling crappy with not being able to get out there and do that kind of stuff.. Its funny you dont realize it until you stop and cant do it how much your body really craves it..
These little trips the past couple weeks have definently not helped the situation.. Alot of walking.. Thank heavens for drugs...

Anyways my parents are here for only 1 more week so I hope we can find some fun things to go do and see.. It has been so great having them here. We are gonna miss them horribly.. Luckily we will only have to go 4 months and then they will be coming out again for Christmas so that will be nice to be able to spend Christmas with them.. I already cant wait.. Too see them anyways.. Not the winter weather.. This summer has been so weird for Michigan. We only had 1 week of 90 degree weather and that was it.. And now the leaves are already starting to change and it has been down right cold the last couple days. We have had fost advisorys already can you believe that.. I have a bad feeling that winter is going to be coming very quick out here and that it is going to be a very nasty cold winter this year.. At least that is what I have heard alot of people saying... We will see....

Hopefully I will get some pictures up of our little vacations in a week or 2.. I have to wait until my parents get home and send me them.. I forgot my camera when we went to Mackinac so I have to have my mom send me hers that she took.. I cant believe I forgot my camera.. And it was so beautiful up there in Northern Michigan with the great lakes. My camera would have gotten some really great photo's.. Owell hopefully my Mom's will turn out good..

Sorry for such the long post.. Alot to catch up on....

Nauvoo

2009-08-10T23:01:00.002-04:00

I am so excited we are leaving tomorrow to meet my parents in Nauvoo to see some of the church history sites. I cant wait.. Then my parents will be coming back with us and staying for a couple weeks. We will be going to Mackinaw Island and seeing some of northern Michigan.. I hear it is just beautiful up there..

Allie came back from girl's camp on Sat and said she had the best time ever up there.. It was so fun the whole time.. I am so glad that she had so much fun being the first time going to girl's camp and being away from home that long.. I was a bit worried.. Now she is really looking forward to next years so that is good. But man I tell ya girls camp sure isnt what it used to be.. They got to sleep in cabins and had their meals catered.. (say what!!) You are kidding me.. What about roughing it like when I was in young womens. Boy how times have changed..

We took the whole family out Sat night to go see the new Harry Potter movie.. It was good. I was a little confused though.. I am going to have to read the books.. It has been storming here for the past few days and it has gotten so humid and foggy and hot!! crazy thunder and lightning storms. and the amount of rain we have gotten is unreal.. in 2 days we filled a 5 gallon icecream bucket clear to the top so about 7 inches I would say.. We had alot of people in our ward who live about a half hour away loose power and had their basements flood. It was pretty sad.. Crazy weather!!

Well I finally comitted and registered for the half marathon in Sept.. so now I am stuck and have to do it.. I am already nervous.. I just hope that I can stay with my training with my parents here and all the traveling around we will be doing.. That makes it pretty hard but I will just have to do it so I dont loose my progress.. I am also going to do the firefighter/EMT physical agility test again in October.. I know I am crazy!! I am hoping to get my back stronger by then and really focus on my strenght training in the mean time to help with the upper body strength it requires to do those tests.. I am also going to be practicing the tests with one of the firefighters in our ward and another girl who is going to be taking the test.. I just hope that during these practices I dont end up screwing my back up again... Anyone have some good back strengthening excercises they wouldnt mind sharing?

Anyways thats it for now.. I will post on our trip to Nauvoo when I get back.. Have a great week!!!

Summer Vacations, Aches and Pains

2009-08-04T22:45:00.007-04:00

Wow I have really been neglecting to blog lately.. Summer just seems so busy.. Wait I think it's just my life.. So what have we been up to lately??

Well Allie left for girls camp today.. She has only had 1 sleepover away from home thus far in her life so she was pretty anxious for this trip.. She is alot like I was at that age.. Tends to get homesick very easy.. She was a little booey when saying our goodbye's but I think she handled it well.. I just hope she has a good time there.. We are missing her at home.. It just feels diffrent when one of your kids are not here with you..

Austin and Jessie are still going to summer school.. I think they are enjoying it alot more then when they first started.. We still have long days with all of Jessie's homework and vision therapys and earobic therapy for her brain. It really is frustrating for her to have to do all this work when it is summer and she wants to play and she doesnt understand why she has to do all this work and the other kids dont.. We have to carefully explain that she needs a little more help and work to keep her brain exercised and to make her eyes learn to read better.. It's hard at this age to fully understand why she has to do all this work.. I think I would be mad too..

We are getting ready to go to Nauvoo, IL next week to meet my parents and go through some of the church sites and learn of the history back there.. I cant wait.. Then my parents will be coming home with us and spend a few weeks with us.. We are planning to get a camping trip in and go to Mackinaw Island and spend a couple days then go site seeing through northern Michigan and see the great lakes. It will be alot of fun.. Then the next week we will be getting all our school shopping done so the kids can start up school again.. Man it seems summer just began and now they are already getting ready to go back to school.. Where did the Summer go?

We were hoping to get in some more camping trips but being new here and not really knowing where to go and then with the kids's crazy summer schedules we just didnt get the chance to get out.. Such a bummer!!

I got this crazy idea that I wanted to become a paramedic.. Well I have been actually thinking about it for a few years now and have just waited for my kids to get older so I could go to schooling and training for it.. So I put my application in here for the fire dept.. Here you have to be both a fire fighter and EMT. You cant choose one or the other. So Sat I had to go take the physical agility test with the fire dept which consisted of 6 or 7 diffrent tasks you had to complete in a given time.. The hardest one is the rescue task where you have to carry a 120 pound dummy 50 feet to a set of stairs and make your way up the stairs into a little room where you turn around and then come back down the stairs and back the 50 feet to the starting position in about 2 mins I think the time was... This is the hardest most physical part of the test.. I had gone up a couple days prior to the fire station to do a practice run to give me an idea how it would be.. They didnt have the stairs to practice on so I just practiced carrying the dummy about 100 feet and back.. I was able to do it but it was really hard and that was without the stairs.. I was really worried about getting up the stairs with that much weight and my knee..

So my firefighter friend reccomended doing this task first since it would require all your strength.. So I choose this task first.. Of course what I wasn't prepared for was that also on this task you have to wear a 60 pound oxygen tank on you back which had a big plastic square case that straps across your chest and the firemans hat and gloves.. So I was carrying 180 pounds of extra weight on my body.. This added a huge diffrence to the way I carried the dummy.. The big plastic case on my chest really limited the way I was trying to hold the dummy out in front of me and I was trying to drag it backward and up the stairs and I kept hitting the oxygen tank on the stair rails which kept knocking me down. So I was forced to try and drag the dummy up the stairs as I tried to drag myself up the metal stairs.. I only got 3/4 the way up the first attempt and had only 1 more attempt left.. I had pulled all my lower back muscles the first attempt and was really hurting and I just knew there was not going to be a way to make it the second time around.. It would have been so much easier if I would have had the upper body strength to lift the dummy up onto my shoulders and carried it that way.. They say most women cannot do it they just dont have the upper body strength.

The second time around I tried a diffrent strategy and tried to drag the dummy by the legs under where the knee's would be.. The dummy is made out of a burlap sack type of material with little rivets connecting the arms, legs and head. I did a little better this time I actually made it all the way up and half the way down but ended up running out of time. I needed about 50 more secs.. I literally could not grip the dummy anymore my forearms were just swollen and had no grip what so ever in them. my back was just screaming... I was so dissapointed and embarrased because I was the first one to have to be escorted back to the station and sent home.. I ended up with scrapes all along my forearms with cuts in the shape of the rivets imbedded into my arms.. I had scrapped ankles where my ankles kept hitting on the metal stairs as I was dragging the dummy up. Both my ankles turned black and blue and were swollen.. I have spent the last 3 days in bed not being able to walk because of my back and have been on pain killers and muscle relaxers hoping that it would heal quickly.. They are going to have another agility test come november so maybe I will try again after I heal and forget how bad it was.. What was really bad was I never even got the chance to experience the other tasks you have to pass so I have no idea what they are like and if I can do them.. Obviously it wasnt the right time for me to do this.. It actually ended up for the better because they wanted to start the school next week dring the time I had all these vacation plans and my parents coming out so I was really stressing how I was going to go to school and still be able to go on vacation.. Guess it ended up working out for the better....

Hey you can even see my black toenail that is in the process of falling off due to my running....

I am a little bummed because I have also started training for a half marathon in sept. I havnt registered for it yet because I am still trying to talk myself into doing it but I have been training for it none the less and so with this back injury it has ceased my training for this week.. I am hoping I will be back out running by the end of the week or the first of next..

So thats what we have been up to lately..

Giveaway Contest

2009-07-14T20:49:00.002-04:00

We all love giveaway contests.. Check out my friend Shauna's blog here to enter her contest for a really sweet prize!! Plus she is the sweetest person and her blog is a very good read..

One Lucky Girl

2009-07-13T21:31:00.005-04:00

Oh my gosh I am such a lucky girl.. I just won my friend Jodi's Pamper Me Give Away Contest!! Yeah I am so excited!! Oh ya Oh ya uh hu uh hu!!! Woo hooo Yipeeeeeeee.. I so needed this...I cant believe I won. There were so many entries for this.. this is the 2nd time i have won a contest of hers.. I must be living right!! Thank you to all those who went in and voted and said I sent ya... Muah!! We are still waiting to hear if she won her sego lily day spa contest.. She won popular votes so she is just waiting to see if she won over the management teams votes.. Good Luck Jodi!!!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks.. We had Steve's mom and dad and brother and wife and their 5 kids come visit us for the 4th of July.. It was great to see them.. It had been 2-3 years since we saw his brother and his family.. We hadn't even seen their 2 youngest so it was really good to see them again.. We took the kids to a near by lake to go fishing and they had the time of their lives.. As soon as they would cast out they would start getting bites.. That is the best fishing for kids.. They dont get too bored that way!! We did some BBQing in the afternoon and since we are still pretty new we didnt know where all the firework shows were so we just got a few and did our own show.. The pickings were very slim out here. They only had a few to choose from so it wasnt all that exciting, but I think the kids still had fun just playing with their cousins..

Jessie and logan started swimming lessons last week and have been having a blast doing that and this week Jessie and Austin will start summer school.. They are not to happy about that but I think it will be beneficial for the both of them.. Jessie is back in horse lessons and loving every minute of it.. She is such our little cowgirl.. Her very first lesson she got to do some jumping which she never has done before and that just put her on cloud 9.. She has been riding Western for the past year and now has taken an intrest in english style so we will see how it works out..

Steve is still very busy with work as always and I am trying to make some major decisions right now on top of being a mom still and running kids everywhere.. I have once again been pondering on the idea of becoming a Firefighter/EMT.. I really only want the EMT part of it but out here it is all 1 job.. Where my kids will be in school full time starting this fall I will have more time so I have been seriously considering going back to work part time.. I have my medical assistant degree but wanted to expand a little.. I have thought about going back to school and getting my RN but am not to thrilled on the going back to school part and the waiting list to be accepted.. Plus the money it would cost.. With doing the firefighter position they pay for your training so I am really trying to decide if this is something I could handle.. I am very strong so I dont think I would have any issues there but I dont have great knee's so I worry about the work causing problems in that area.. I have already had surgery twice on 1 knee and am still having problems with them... I dont mind seeing blood and guts I have always been into watching the er shows and medical stuff on tv so I dont think that would bother me either but I do worry about some of the scenes I may see on some of the calls I would go on.. Having to see a child who has been run over or who has died in some way may hit a little too close to home and I worry what effect it might have on me.. I heard that it is a very rough and stressful job. I definently dont need any more stress in my life so I am really torn on what to do.. Does anyone have any opinions advice or experience that would like to share?

Also I have started up regulary running again (no wonder I am having knee problems) and have been seriously contemplating on running a half marathon in Sept.. I only ran a 5k last year and have had many problems since then with running and injurys.. I just love running and my goal is to run a marathon someday.. My knees and shin splints in my leg have really been a problem and ends up taking me out of the game alot, plus I am so chicken when it comes to new experiences I'v never done before. I have no clue where the city the race is in. I'm not familiar with the area or how to even go about doing it and wish I had someone who has done this before that could kinda show me the ropes.. I dont even really know how to prepare.. But I have read some running books and have done a little research and just started today on a training schedule to help prepare so now all I have to do is make up my mind on whether to do it or not and hope that my body will cooperate with me..

Decisions Decisions..

So anyways that is what we have been up to lately..

A New Neighbor

2009-06-29T14:40:00.005-04:00

Over the past few weeks we have heard this growling and hissing out our window late at night. We figured we knew what it was but last night we got confirmation.. Steve spooked our new neighbor up into a tree so we were able to get a good picture of him..

We had a pretty good weekend..Friday morning as I was getting breakfast going and noticed a ton of cars lining the street I live on. I couldnt see what was going on until I saw the sign in front of our neigbors house.. I guess once a year out here they have 1 day where the whole subdivision does garage sales.. They put it in the paper and and put signs out.. I hadnt heard anything about it.. I decided to run home and see what I could hurry and throw together for a sale.. By the time I got set up it was already noon.. The sale goes from 9-4 on friday and saturday.. I think we missed out on the rush of the crowd but still did ok.. My kids wanted to sale lemonade so I let them put a table up and manage the lemonade table.. Because of missing most of the crowd we really didnt make much on friday and of course I didnt get anything done that I wanted to but we still had a pretty good time..

Sat I got up early to get my run in before the sale started and I had a really great run.. For more on that you can go here to read about it..

Austin had his last championship playoff game for baseball Saturday morning as well. Unfortunatly they lost and they were done for the season, but he was in good spirits and had a great time playing.. They were having a huge baseball picnic and games for all the teams on Sunday and we were worried that he would be really upset not being able to be a part of it with his team because of it being on sunday. To our surprise he really wasn't to dissapointed.. We are very proud of him for understanding the reason why we dont participate in those kind of activitys on sunday..

It was just before 9 and we had people showing up already.. We had found a few more items to put out for the sale which was good.. I had made a deal with the kids that whatever money we made from the sale we would take them to the carnival/fair they had going on. They were pretty excited about that.. We took them out to the carnival and then out to eat we had a wonderful family night.. Allie had one of her new friends from school come with us and then spend the night and came with us to church.. Our allie is such a great little missionary. She is always wanting to bring someone with her to church activitys and meetings on sunday.. She is a great example to the rest of us..

That was our fun weekend and look forward to this coming weekend.. Steve's Mom and Dad and brother and his wife and kids will be coming to visit for the July 4th weekend. We havn't seen them for a very long time so it will be a nice visit.. Of course I am not looking forward to cleaning my house up all week.. LOL

By the way I hope its not too late, but my friend Jodi (check out her blog it is awesome)who is such a wonderful lady has been entered into a contest for a years worth of pampering from sego lily day spa.. She could really use all your vote's so go here to help her out.. She is very deserving of this... Once you have voted go to her blog under the pamper me give away contest and let her know I sent you to vote. This gives me another chance at winning her contest. Then just follow the directions on there and you will be entered to win...

Thanks everyone..

More Summer Catch Up.

2009-06-25T19:44:00.012-04:00

This first part was supposed to be at the end of my post but I added the pictures in last and didn't want to move them and screw up the size and not be able to click on them so pardon my screwed up backward posting...
First A Small tribute to my dad's for father's day.. I'm a little late but thats ok.. My dad passed away 6 years ago in July.. Oh how I miss him.. He was a farmer in utah.. Farming was his passion. He loved being outdoors, up in the mountains hunting and camping.. He loved animals.. He had lots of goats, pigs, deer, dogs and horses at his farm.. The kids loved to visit and pet all the animals.. He also had many orchards of cherries, peaches, and apples. Him and my step mom ran a fruit stand in Perry and worked very hard.. He also built a housing development with my grandma in Perry called Hill Haven subdivision. He worked very hard all his life.. My dad is my hero.. I looked up to him alot.. I wish I could have been around him more.. We didn't get to see him much growing up but the times we did were so precious to me.. I always had the best times camping with him.. He had me riding a 3 wheeler by the time I was 5. And he didn't even kill me when I backed the 4 wheeler up right through someones camping trailer and put a huge hole in it, or when I would be miles away and run out of gas and he would have to come get me.. He taught me how to water ski.. He had me skiing with him when I was about 4 or 5 as well.. He would have me stand up on his feet and wrap 1 arm around me and off we would go, and he would tell me when to plug my nose when we were going to go down in the water..I think I got my thrill seeking from him.. We were always doing dangerous, fun, exhilarating things..
Unfortunately he died way to soon. I would give anything to see him again and talk with him. There is so much I wish I could have said before he died.. The thing that gets me through is knowing that we will be reunited again. Happy Father's Day Dad I love you you will always be my Hero.....

And to my other best dad in the world.. He got me when I just turned 1o. He got the raw end of the deal I think.. He had to raise me through the toughest part of my life.. Being a teenager and a girl when he only had boys was probably a nightmare.. He was a police officer in Utah for 30 years before he retired.. He is also a Viet Nam Vet.. Now imagine how fun that was for me growing up Not!!! we didn't have the best of relationship growing up.. I had to get pretty sneaky when it came to sluffing school because at the time I was in High school he was the juvenile cop so he was always there.. And I would get so embarrassed when the kids would come up to me and say oh man your dad just busted me.. I would literally turn my head and pretend I didn't notice him when I saw him.. What a daughter hu? And of course he did background checks on all my boyfriends, always found me when I wasn't where I was supposed to be, made me do the jobs over again if I didn't do them right the first time, taught me to turn the water off when I was brushing my teeth so I didn't waste, and turn the lights off when I left the room. No talking on the phone past 9:00 pm, taught me how to mow the lawn, shoot a gun, parallel park, and much more. He was always there at my colorguard performances and parades cheering me on and helped make me the person I am today.. I hate to think how my life might have turned out without him. He brought us back into the church and I will always be grateful for that.. He's a little OCD, he stays up at night worrying about everything and tries to solve the worlds problems, but he's the best grandpa and dad anyone could ask for and I am grateful that I have him and I didn't kill him off through those teenage years.. Happy Father's Day Dad.. Love you!!

Now on to whats been going on in my neck of the woods lately!!

I have gotten a bit behind on my postings.. We have been running non stop since school got out with different things going on and projects we want to accomplish.. And here I though summer was for fun and relaxation??

We attempted some clean up around our yard to beautify it.. I doesn't look like much from the Pict's. but if you saw the before Pict's you would definitely see the difference.. We cut back alot of trees and foliage around the back yard so you could view the walkway to the pond better and just took back the edge of the greenery.. We are only renting right now so we cant do to much to it.. If we owned this I would go to town and take out all the smaller trees and foilage right down to the water so it looked really cleaned up but still had the big trees for the shade and some of the natural preserve running along the pond..

This whole stoned path was really covered in foilage and tree branches ect. so we really cut back this area quite a bit..
Picture of the pond in our back yard.. It's only about 3 feet deep and full of moss, Lilly pads and tons of turtles, frogs and snakes eeewwwwww!! My kids have a blast down here catching the frogs.. When I was down here on the waters edge with my legs straddled one in the water and the other on land trying to cut down some of the foilage a big water snake slithered right between my legs.. I froze with fear.. I just hate snakes.. I always have been since I was a little girl, and was chased by a rattlesnake when I was fishing with my brother.. He had to pick me up and run with me on his back. It was a real frightening experience..
We don't really have any flat area up in our yard to plant a garden so we decided to try and till up some ground by the pond and make a garden there.. The ground was pretty hard so we brought in some top soil and tilled it in and gave it a try.. Our only problem is we have lots of wildlife out here so we had to fence it in hoping it would keep the animals out plus we have to carry buckets of water down everyday to water it because we have no way of getting a hose down this far so its kind of a pain but if it goes well and we can harvest some food from it it will be worth it.. It's not much but it's at least something.. Before we could get it planted and fenced we had a bunch of turtles rejoicing for the nice tilled up dirt and they came and dug holes and laid tons of baby turtle eggs all over in our garden.. Unfortunately I think a raccoon or chipmunk or some kind of animal found them out and ate them for the next day we found lots of broken apart egg shells, however they didn't get them all so we covered up what eggs were left and planted around them and then fenced them in so I guess we are harvesting baby turtles as well.. We didn't have a garden in NJ so I am really missing my home grown veggies.. So far we have only lost a couple plants so we will see.. We were really late getting it in so I hope it produces before winter hits..

We took Logan to get a new haircut.. He4r hair was getting pretty long. It had been a year since we cut it so she was in need.. I think it turned out really cute..

We also used up some wood pieces we had left over from our move and made some garden boxes out of them and put them up on our driveway.. I think they turned out pretty good for being free... And the plants are really doing well so far..

And on the 23rd my baby turned 5. Can you believe it!!! My how the time has flown by.. It's hard to see the last one growing up.. I just wanted to keep her little forever but she just seems to change everyday... She is the only one of my kids who got my blue eyes and blond hair.. She really looks like my side of the family.. My dad died right before I got pregnant with her but I know she knew him and spent time with him before she came.. She is so much like him in so many ways.. I see alot of him in her...

For a year now since her last birthday she has wanted these Diamond Castle Barbies.. I have not been able to find them in stores so I had to look on ebay which of course because they are now discontinued they cost an arm and a leg.. But at least we found them and got them so she was excited as ever..

We just finished up swimming lessons today for Allie and Austin.. We will start lessons for Logan and Jessie in a couple weeks.

Now that I have put you all to sleep.. LOL sorry for the lengthy post.. Happy Friday everyone..

Sundays Quote

2009-06-20T23:00:00.001-04:00

"A pebble held close to the eye appears to be a gigantic obstacle. Cast on the ground, it is seen in perspective. Likewise, problems or trials in our lives need to be viewed in the perspective of scriptural doctrine. Otherwise they can easily overtake our vision, absorb our energy, and deprive us of the joy and beauty the Lord intends us to receive here on earth."

14th Wedding Anniversary

2009-06-10T15:04:00.005-04:00

Because in everything I do You always have a part, Because a loving thought of you Is always in my heart, Because each little wish of mine You've tried to make come true -- On this, our day, I want to say How dearly I love you.

I really want to tell you Just how precious you are to me, My every thought of you Is as loving as can be
My heart is totally filled with things That words alone can't say, This comes especially for you With all my love today

My how these 14 years have flown by.. Seems like yesterday we were sweethearts in highschool and now here we are happily married with 4 kids.. It was the best day of my life when I kneeled across that altar and lost myself in his eyes. Its like the words to our wedding song.... "It was no accident me finding you, someone had a hand in it long before we ever knew, He sure knew what he was doing when he joined these two hearts. I hold everything when I hold you in my arms, your all I'll ever need thanks to the keeper of the stars...

I love you baby!! Here's to the best 14 years of my life....

Problems with blog

2009-06-02T15:16:00.002-04:00

Just out of curiosity. Is anyone having problems with their blog not fully loading up.. mine has been doing it now for a while off and on and I cant figure it out..
This is the error I get.. Anyone know what it means??

Webpage error details
User Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; InfoPath.2; AskTB5.2)Timestamp: Tue, 2 Jun 2009 19:19:29 UTC
Message: HTML Parsing Error: Unable to modify the parent container element before the child element is closed (KB927917)Line: 0Char: 0Code: 0URI: http://srhoyt.blogspot.com/

Dead Goose

2009-05-20T20:38:00.004-04:00

Ok just a quick sad post.. So I probably brought this on myself but since I had started feeding my goosy neighbors they have been hanging out alot more at my house.... Big mistake in more ways then 1.. So I looked out side and didn't happen to see any in the yard so I let my little dog out to go potty and I had turned my back for a second and all of a sudden I could hear the loud honking of the goose and I turned and saw my dog leaping after it chasing it down into the bushes.. I saw him get it but I couldnt tell if he just kind of pounced on it or actually bit at it but I was trying to call him off and chase after him to grab him and put him back in the house .. Once I got him there i went to acess the damadge and I could see the goose was stuck in some vines and branches of the bushes and he wasnt moving so I got steve to get some gloves and pick it up out of the bushes and go lay it on our little path down to the pond hoping it would get up and take off.. However it didnt move.. I am not sure if the whings got broke when it ran into the brush or if it might have snapped its neck..It wasnt picking its head up very well so I kinda think its neck might have broke.. I felt so HORRIBLE!!

I called someone from the wildlife preserve to come and look at him and who happened to be in the area. She wasnt over geese but over coyotes which we have in the area oh my gosh that is a whole nother story but she said she would come look at it and could possibly refer me to someone, but as soon as I hung the phone up the goose turned his head kinda funny and looked at me then layed it down on the ground and died.. I lost it.. I felt so bad... I have such a tender heart for animals and knowing that they mate for life and his partner was just on the other side of the pond with their babies probably sensing something was wrong.. Oh my gosh it was horrible.. Plus all my kids were like bawling.. So our choice was to put it in the garbage or bury it deep so that the coyotes wouldnt find it..

Of course we did the only humane thing and had a funeral for the thing.. We had to hurry because the other mate and babies were starting to make their way over to our yard and we wanted to have it done before they could get close.. Oh my gosh what a night.. so we planted some wildflowers over the area where it had passed to remember it by.. I hope they come up.. Jessie my animal lover is out there everyday watering them bless her heart. And she prays for the gooses family to be watched over every night.. It was pretty sad!!
Anyways that is a little tidbit of whats been going on here.. I still havn't gotten over my sinus infection that I have had for 2-3 weeks now.. My ears are still plugged and is driving me bonkers.. I have been on 3 diffrent antibiotics. I either got sick from them or hade a fluke stomach bug at the same time so its been a pretty miserable week. I am hoping it will only get better.. austin just finished a round of antibiotics up himself on Sat and has now started back up with another ear infection.. It makes you wonder what is going on out here.. Maybe its something in the water.. LOL

Furry Friends and House

2009-05-15T16:49:00.003-04:00

Ok here is some picts of the inside of my house.. This is the downstairs family room.. My bathroom..

The kitchen

Sitting room which I really wanted to make as a dining room which is what it really is but steve said we wouldnt use a dining room as much as a sitting room.. Whatever!!

Entry

Upstairs

Great Room

And here are some furry friends that came to visit me today.. I have a system going on now.. I have started feeding them bread and they're starting to warm up to me.. We are going to be great friends.. Pretty soon they all will be knocking on my door.. LOL Gosh I feel like snow white with my 4 dwarfs and all my fuzzy furry friends around my cottage.. I had 2 deer this morning in my back yard but when I went out it startled them and they jumped across the pond into the brush..

Aint he just a cutie?? I call him Pete..

I dont know what this is for sure but he is cute too.. Im thinking it is a ground hog or rock chuck?? Thought I would call him chucky..

I had 3 diffrrent familys of geese in my yard today all at once.. They must have passed the word around that there was free food. One set of parents had 4 which is pictured here, then another set had 2 babys and then the 3rd set had 7 goslings and they were just tiny.. I couldnt get good picts of them because they were to skittinsh and ran off when i tried to get close...

Yea for friday!! Steve comes home from NJ tonight then him and Austin are going on the boy scout 3 miler hike tomorrow.. So all us girls are going to sleep in I hope....

Our New Home

2009-05-14T16:30:00.007-04:00

Ok so here is the start of my catch ups...We are finally moved and settled into our new home.. The kids are fitting in great at school and have made friends and they say they are really liking Michigan.. Where we live it is just beautiful. We live up against a pond and a nature preserve so there is so much forrest and nature around us.. It is very peaceful and relaxing.. We have a nice big deck where we put our porch swing and I love to go out there in the early mornings or early evenings and just listen to the geese and birds.. At night hundreds of frogs come out and its like a froggy opera . They are so LOUD!!!!! But it's really cool.. And yea I even got my favorite birds here (humming birds). in NJ we didnt have any so I was excited when I put my feeders out and soon started seeing them come around.. we have had deer, chipmunks, ducks, squirrels great big brown one's diffrent then what we had in NJ and today we had a ground hog run across our back yard. we also have blow snakes wich I am not fond of and just pray I never run across one.. I was riding my bike the other day and just about run one over and it jumped up at me and I thought I was gonna kill over right then and there.. I screamed and about crashed my bike.. It took several minutes for my heart to get back to a normal rhythem.. I HATE snakes..... It is so fun to just sit out and watch.. Here are some of my neighbors that live in our pond and love to come over and eat our bird seed. The baby goslings are just the cutest.. Mom and the babys usually eat while daddy stand guard and watches..

This is the back of our house and some picts of the deck and our gazebo on the deck and also some of the views from our deck.. You can click on the picts for bigger sizes..

We have a built in ground fire pit on the back yard rock patio..

Isn't it just gorgeous... I will post pictures of the inside of the house tomorrow. I am working backward and starting here and then will eventually get posts of before the move in here if I am able to find the little digital camera we had.. I took out small one with me to NY when I had a girls weekend out in NYC and I took some picts of the moving process and other things I wanted to post about but we have not been able to find the camera since we got here.. We have unpacked everything so i am kinda thinking somehow we lost it or misplaced it or it dissapeared somehow when we were in the process of loading up the moving trucks.. So Iam kinda bummed and hope it shows up someday...

My parents went home yesterday after living with us for the past 10 weeks bless their hearts. They were such a tremendous help with watching the kids for us while we house hunted then when it got time to pack and clean and move then unpack.. I think I killed them off.. My poor dad was sick most the whole time.. My kids had colds when he came out and he ended up getting it and then we all passed it around again so he got it right back so he has been pretty miserable most of the time. seems he always catches a cold everytime he comes to see me.. I guess thats what happens when you have sick kids.. Anyways it was so nice to have my mom help with homework and meals.. I think I took advantage of her.. It was so nice to not have to worry about it. It was so hard on us all to have them go.. There wasnt a dry eye in the house.... If your reading this mom and dad you guys are the BEST!!! Thank you so much for all you did...

And now I am down sick with a horrible cold that has gone into a sinus infection. I cant smell or taste anything and I am so sick of coughing.. My ears are plugged up and that drives me insane. I hate hearing myself talk.. My head feels like its going to blow up.. I finally went to a dr. yesterday and got put on antibiotics so I am hoping I will start feeling better soon.

So until next posting..

Farewell New Jersey

2009-04-28T18:04:00.002-04:00

Well its farewell to NJ and hello MI.
We flew out this morning and are now staying in a hotel until friday.. Our stuff will be delivered on Thursday. Wow talk about a temperature change here.. When we left NJ this morning it was 90 degrees and beautuful and sunny and when we got here it was raining and a balmy 40 degrees.. We all had to change out of our shorts..LOL
I didnt think this week would ever come and now it's here.. Now I get to look forward to unpacking UUGGHHH!!! I hate moving.. Well as soon as I get settled in I will have to do all my catching up..
Until next time...

Packed Up

2009-04-21T16:06:00.002-04:00

Just a quick check in before they pack up my kids computer... Packers arrived today to start packing my house and they got 3/4 of it all packed up.. By tomorrow afternoon the rest of my house will be packed.. I am so excited its finally here and this time next week we will be on our way to Michigan.. It seemed like it would never get here but now its flying by. Soon it will be time to send my parents back home. After living with us for the past 2 months I am sure they are more then ready to go home but we will miss them soooo much.. It will be tough on the kids and me... They have been such a great help and support through all this.. I dont think I could have done it without them with steve being in Michigan during this whole moving process..

Anyways the next time I get on here I will be reporting from Michigan and I am sure I will have a cazillion posts of catch-ups. So until then........................

Easter

2009-04-11T21:06:00.006-04:00

"Easter is the celebration of the free gift of immortality given to all men, restoring life and healing all wounds. Though all will die as part of the eternal plan of growth and development, nevertheless we can all find comfort in the Psalmist’s statement, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.”

Happy Easter everyone!! I hope to get on here soon and do an update.. My computer has been in the repair shop for over a month now and we still havnt got it back yet and probably wont until we get moved so just wanted to let you all know I havnt forgotten ya.. have a blessed Easter Sunday....

We Got Our House

2009-03-14T22:39:00.004-04:00

Yeah I'm so excited.. It looks like we are going to be able to get the house I fell in love with after all.. The owners decided to lease it to us with an option to buy it if we want so we must be living right.. I can hardly wait.. You can check out our new home here.. I love the neighborhood. It has a private pond right in our backyard and backs to a nature preserve. There is a nice trail that runs along the subdevision for me to go running on and its just like being up in the mountains because there are so many pine and other trees and nature all around the neighborhood. It's like being in a forrest! There is a nice size river that is just around the block that I'm sure Steve will ehaust with his fly pole.. And there is a nice big lake called Lake Ori0n within 1 mile of our home to go boating on.. There's actually about 5-6 lakes around us all within a few mins drive, and tons more lakes we have yet to discover all within about an hours drive.. There are so many lakes in this state it's a boaters dream..
The only downfall is we are about a 30 min drive to go to our church which will make the weekly activities a challenge.. It's not like I will be able to drop the kids off and then go home and pick hem up when its done. I will have to stay or go do some shopping then be there to pick them up..
Also I am about a 20 min drive from the nearest walmart.. I dont know if I will survive without being within a few mins from a walmart but at least there is a grocery store within about 5-10 mins so I guess it will do... I think we will really like being here.. Other then the cold weather and very snowy winters I think its alot like Utah where we grew up so I think it will feel alot more like home... And bonus they even have a scrapbook store out here Yeah!!! NJ didnt have one so I am excited to have one so close now.. I cant wait to get out here!!

House Hunting

2009-03-11T21:55:00.002-04:00

Just hanging in Michigan looking for houses.. So far I have only seen 2 houses I really liked. 1 was already under contract and the other one which I really really liked is too expensive for us so I am feeling a little bummed out.. There doesnt seem to be a whole lot in our price range to buy that are in good areas and so we are now looking at renting options which we have found 1 that would work so we will see.. I hope some more options come open for us.. It's been pretty cold here the last couple days.. They got alot of rain over the weekend so alot of areas here are flooding or have ponds in their back yards.. And alot of houses here have ponds, nature preserves, or lakes that come right up to the back yard. So very pretty but a little scarry too..
Seems we just cant find the right house with a decent yard in the right area.. Very discouraging!!
Owell hopefully something will come up..

Another Recap

2009-03-03T21:10:00.007-05:00

We signed up Austin for basketball this year. This is the first time he has been on a basketball team. He has had so much fun.. He really looks forward to his saturday games. He is so into athletics right now.. He loves sports and being active.. He wants to try football next but I'm not to excited about that.. There seems to be many more injurys associated with football. Owell I guess you have to try everything once.

Look what we recieved in the mail over the weekend.. A good friend and co worker of Steve's sent us this gift as a going away gift.. Can I just say these are the best cookies ever... There were about 5-6 diffrent cake slices, 3-4 diffrent types of brownies, 11 diffrent types of cookies.. Yummy!!!!

So I got a Bosch mixer for christmas and I finally decided to try it out and make some bread.. After my last attempt to make bread I was a little nervous on how they would turn out.. I was very impressed with myself.. They turned out heavenly.. It was a really good recipe. And I spent about 15-20 mins kneading the crap out of it and it ended up having a great texture..

My mom wanted a recent photo of the kids so this is what we came up with.. Seems I can never get all the kids to cooperate or not fight or be crying in group photos so I snuck one really quick before school and it turned out ok.. Of course we had to try 3 times because someone would not be smiling or be pulling some crazy face..

12 years ago on Friday my precious Allie was born and I became a mother. What a sweet little bundle she was. After 32 hours of horrible labor, an infection from my water being broken so long and being utterly exhausted to the point my poor hubby had to wake me and hold me up to push through my contractions and with some help with the forceps she finally made her entrance into this world. And it's been like that ever since. Everything is always on her own time.. There is no rushing her. She is not about to do anything until she is good and ready.. She is my sweet angel, and I am so glad she came first. She is so gentle natured, She has a heart of gold, she is sensitive (a trait that often drives me bonkers) she wears her heart on her sleeves. She is very loving and kind. She loves her brother and sisters and helps me take very good care of them.. She is becoming a great babysitter.. Hooray finally!! She is so easy going.. I cant believe I have a young woman already..1 more year and we hit the crazy teen years.. Why cant I just keep them little?? Of course I am looking forward to having more mother daughter outings with her now that she is getting older and can relate a little better.. We have alot of catching up to do.. Being our first she was born under hard circumstances. Steve was going to work and school full time and what little time he had left he was doing homework or trying to sleep.. He was working graveyard shift and going to school during the days, and being a new mother and not knowing what to expect and not having him there to help me was extremely difficult. On top of everything else I developed a horrible case of the baby blues that didnt go away and took many months to overcome. I never got to bond with her the way I did with my other children. We have always put a lot of responsibility on her and have expected more from her then the other children. I'm not sure why we do that.. I hear alot of people do that with their first child. They kinda have to grow up way to fast and dont get to enjoy being a child.. Anyways enough babbeling.. I just cant imagine my life without her and I am so lucky and blessed to have her as my daughter.. I love you Alligator!! Happy Birthday...

A little friend get together for her birthday..

It's a crazy week for me.. I'm trying to get my house organized and clean for the upcoming weekend. I have my best friend from utah flying out on Thurs. to spend the weekend with us.. She and I are going to have a girls weekend out and go to NY friday and Sat and do some sight seeing and go to dinner and go see the play Wicked on broadway. I cant wait.. It will be so fun to see her again. I think she is my sister I never got... And my moms coming out on friday to help watch the kids while we fly out on monday to go house hunting for 2 weeks.. So lots to do.....

Catch Up

2009-02-17T16:13:00.004-05:00

Ok I know its been a while.. So much has been going on lately that I just havn't had the time to sit and blog for a while. Well plus I have just got introduced to face book so I have been spending some time on there trying to figure out how it works.. Its been fun finding tons of old friends from highschool on there and reconnecting with them..Some I thought I would never hear from again so it has been cool.... It has brought up some fun memorys going back to those days.. Of course I would never want to go back and relive them.. It's funny to see how dumb highschool really was and that there was so much life out there beyond the highschool doors if you know what I mean, but there definently was some great times had there..

So Steve got the job in Michigan so we have been taking the last week trying to find out all we can about the areas, trying to decide on where to start looking for houses.. Getting info on schools and communitys.. Trying to make plans for my mom to fly out and watch the kids while we go house hunting. Trying to make a list of all the things I have to get done here to get ready to move.. I like moving but then I really hate moving.. There is just so much to do in order for it to happen.. Things have been happening really quickly lately..

We have been tossing around the idea of just when we should move. Wait until kids get out of school or go in the next couple of months and let them finish up the last couple of months there and hopefully find a friend to have someone to play with through the summer.. There is pros and cons to both..
We moved out here in the middle of the school year and it was so hard on the kids but I think it was mainly the whole culture shock that was the hardest on us where we were coming from utah and had never been anywhere else.. So I am hoping that now that we have been out here and have gotten kind of used to the whole culture diffrences and stuff I am hoping that this move will be much easier on them..
I do think that it will be important for them to find some friends to get through the summer with.. And with Steve already working over there and flying out every sunday and coming home at the end of the week will really get old quickly.. The only thing we have to wait for is Jessie is still undergoing her testing with the child study team in school to determine her basis for special education and we definently want to wait until that has been completed before we go so we can take all her evaluations and reports with us so we can get her established in some programs out there... So we are thinking we will possibly be outta here by April... I will really miss NJ.. It is so beautiful here and we have made some great friends.. Finally after 14 months of living here I finally feel like I fit in here and have come quite fond of the area. Although I still hate it being so cold and having no snow here.. But I dont think that will be a problem in Michigan.. LOL

And on top of all that I have one of my best friends coming out from Utah in a couple weeks for a visit and we are planning a girls weekend out in NY.. So I have been trying to plan things to go and do over there and get tickets for a broadway play and some other attractions over there. So it has been busy busy here... I am actually planning to fly out to go house hunting the same day my friend plans to fly home from here so its going to be one thing after another until we move... We are going to be spending most the whole month of March over there and April we will move so its going to be a nightmare here for a while.. My poor mom is planning on being here from March and not going home until after we get moved so she will be gone for like at least a month and a half.. I hope we dont kill her off!! Trying to take care of 4 kids on your own is hard enough on me but for her exspecially when she is not used to it. It will probably put her over the edge... LOL My dad cant come out to help because he will be recovering from knee surgery so it will prove to be interesting around here.. she is quite the trooper!! What would I do without her... Love you Mom!!
But I am excited for the adventure.. At least I am getting to see some of the world this way... LOL

Anyways that's whats happening in my neck of the woods. Oh plus Steve was in another car accident.. Bless our lucky stars he was not hurt but did end up having the car totaled again.. This is the second accident since we have been here.. I wonder if that says anything about NJ driving since we never had 1 in utah.. Although in my opinion utah drivers are not great either.. LOL
At least it was not his fault.. Oh and I have my oldest turning 12 next week.. AAAGGH Since when did I get old enough to have a daughter going into young womans.....The gray hairs are really settling in now...It seems like just yesterday I was there and now I have one..Man how the years have flown by.. I was just thinking I will have been married 14 years this June.. Wow!! Crazy!! I really do feel we have been blessed. It's not exactly how I thought things would turn out but it definitely has been quite a ride.. I still hope that someday we will end up back in utah to be near family again but until then I am enjoying the adventure..

Quote for the Day

2009-02-17T16:11:00.001-05:00

Another great quote I found..

"None of us will escape tragedy and suffering. Each of us will probably react differently. However, if we can recall the Lord’s promise, “for I the Lord am with you,” we will be able to face our problems with dignity and courage. We will find the strength to be of good cheer instead of becoming resentful, critical, or defeated. We will be able to meet life’s unpleasant happenings with clear vision, strength, and power."
--Marvin J. Ashton, "Be of Good Cheer", Ensign, May 1986, 66

2009-02-11T12:17:00.002-05:00

Hey everybody check out my good friend Jodi's blog for a chance to enter her blogiversary give away.. It's to delish to pass up.. Hurry up you only have until the 14th to enter... Everybody think purple!!!!!

Michigan here we come!!

2009-02-06T19:52:00.002-05:00

Wooo hooo Michigan here we come...
Steve got offered the job today for michigan.. So looks like we are headed to Michigan.. If any of you know about Michigan and can give any helpful advice I would love to hear it.. I'm so nervous.. There's so much to do.... I'll keep you posted....