Tiny bit of snow

Joshua built this castle and wanted me to blog it for him.

We got the smallest dusting of snow this morning so of course we have to play outside in it.

I'm not sure if we are having any fun?

Good Kitty

The kids like to play puppy and kitty and eat out of the little dishes we have. I thought these were too cute with the sun shinning in.

Ethans New Crib

This is what Ethan got for Christmas. I love it. He thinks I'm trying to put him down for a nap so I'll have to take the pictures quick.

No blanket = no nap now get me out.

This is what I discovered after 1 week of having my dream crib. Ethan has been teething on it. I've alread ordered a teething pad cover. That little teething turkey.

He was trying to get out and fell back. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he figures it out .

We Have a Mouse in the House

These are some of the things I've been finding in my kitchen lately. I bag of buns ripped into and eaten.

Then there are the boxes of cracker. All of the cereal boxes look like this too.

I even found a bag of potatoes of all things that had been eaten through. The problem is I know exactly who the mouse is and I just can't bear the get rid of him. He is the cutest thing in the world and weighs over 20 pounds. We have become quite attached to him over the last 18 months, and we named him Ethan. Yes all this evidence points to my son. He is the mouse. This sweet child of mine will climb into the snack cuboard, close the door and just start eating what ever he can get his hands on. I have never had a more "mouthy" baby than Ethan.

Flat Tire

My bad day started at 7:05 this morning when I woke up and realized I over slept and should have been up at 6:30. Shaun is out of town on a job interview so now I have to get all three kids up to take Sarah to school. I get Sarah to school on time and as I am pulling out of the parking lot I got to close to the gate and torn a hole in the side wall of my tire. I'm still not exactly sure how this happened but I plan on checking out the gate the next time I'm at the school to see what I could have snagged the tire on. I heard the scrape and thought I had just ruined the paint. I pulled over to take a look and to confirm that I had in fact ruined the paint and put a dent in the side. Did I mention this is a brand new 2007 van purchased 6 months ago? Yeah, that's what I said. I got back on the rode and felt like I was driving over washboards. I pulled over again and thats when I noticed the flat. I then called my friend (crying) who came to help me change the flat. During the tire change the car fell off the jack (thankgoodness we were all away from it and no one was hurt). So now we need to make sure the brake was not damaged when the van fell. To sum it up we got the spare on and made it safetly home all before 9:00 am. If not for the other two children to care for I would have called it a day and gone back to bed. On a more positve note I now know how to change a flat tire and I am thankful to have the bestest friend in the world who I will thank which much chocolate and free babysitting.

My Job

I was informed by a wise sister today that it is okay to blog without a picture. I was under the misconception that nobody would read it unless it had a picture. So here is my cute story for the day.
Joshua wanted to do something dangerous the other day so I said, "NO" His reply, "Why are you always so mean." I said "Because I'm the meaniest mom in the whole world and that is my job." He says. "No your job is to cook." And on that note it is 4:15 so I better get to work and make something for dinner.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Bluewater again. All I can say in Brrrr! The day before was 70 degrees then it dropped to 40. What a shock. We had a great time with great food. It was a small gathering this year only 20 people. When you come from a family with 31 grandkids 20 people for Thanksgiving is a small crowd. DeeAnne made many wonderful pies ( so much for eating healthy). We played cards (hand and foot) and rode ATVs. And of course I don't have a single photo to back it up, sorry I'm so bad at taking pictures. Anyway just trying to keep up on the blog thing.

Tag Done

I will do the best I can with this but I'll be lucky to get up to six with out cheating and telling stories about my kids.

1) I love ASL. I've been taking lessons for over five years now (on and off). I hope one day to become a certitfied interpreter. I went into fits of jealousy when I found out Heather belonged to the Deaf ward. Oh I could learn so much there.
2) I love to read and I have trouble seperating my real life from what I am reading. I have to be careful not to get mad at my husband for the mistakes that other men make in books.
3) I love to organize things. I'm not bad enough to need therapy for it but I'll find myself organizing the clothes on the rack at Target while I'm shopping.

I can't think of anything else right now, deal with it. Maybe I'll finish this up later.

Happy Halloween

I don't know about anyone else but I'm glad Halloween is finally over. Between school carnivals, church partys, and regular trick-or-treating I have had enough. I wasn't the only one though. When I got Josh up the morning of Halloween he asked for candy for breakfast. I said "No, but you will get plenty of candy tonight, it's Halloween." His reply, "Not Again!"
Someone at the truck-or-treat gave this to Ethan, he was very excited.

The family at the ward trunk-or-treat and carnival.

Here they are about to leave for the school carnival. "I see you behind that camera mom." points Ethan. Notice the perfect cat pose from Sarah and the fierce Spiderman from Josh.

Come on lets go.

Joshua thought this was sooooooo cool.

I had to do Sarah's makeup four times for different events. That's a lot of MaryKay samples.

Ethan is a dragon, or maybe a dinosaur, or perhaps Barny?

The kids carvning the pumkins. Sarah just kept saying, "Ewww, this is so gross."

The kids came up with designs, we just carved. Sarahs' star pumpkin also has little tiny holes all over it which had a neat effect in the dark. Joshua came up with the idea to put the bat glasses on his. He named it "NERD".

Ethan likes to crawl under the bar stools but then he gets stuck. It's the perfect little baby jail.

It was picture day at school. This year I'm not buying any so this is all you get, sorry. Pictures at school are becoming an expensive waste of money.

This is how Ethan tells me he's hungry. He just climbs on in the high chair himself.

Just tuck in that foot and he's ready for a snack.

After three years in this house I finally got the porch I've always wanted. Hurray for shade.

Ethan likes to take a ride on the mower when Daddy is all done with the lawn. And NO I don't let him ride it when in is running. Give me a little credit here. HA - HA!

Mommy is washing the car and the kids are "helping" Notice that we only have one pair of boots but Joshua was nice enough to share with Ethan. They are each wearing one.

This is what Ethan got for his first birthday. It's a mini bounce castle. He's screaming because he wants everyone out. He doesn't like the big kids in with him, it knocks him down.

Here is a better picture of it. That is Josh laying on the bottom.

Yummy birthay cake and icecream.

We had a small pary with two other families. It was a great day. I wish I already had the porch that day. It was hot and sunny.

We had out the pool, sandbox, and the bouncy castle. It was a super fun day.

All the kids in the sand box.

This was his cake. It is a swimming pool. Heather sent us the idea from a magazine and the kids begged for me to make it. I think it came out pretty good.

The morning of Ethan party I was filling up the pool. He ran outside and jumped in before I could stop him.

Aries Family Reunion JUNE 2007

We discovered that Ethan LOVES watermelon. I'm thankful it is healthy because he ate a ton of it over the weekend.

There are always lots of kittens at Bluewater. This is the one Sarah begged to take home.

All the kids doing the sing-along-songs. Grandpa on the left, Shaun on the right with the hat on.

This is kitty that Josh claimed.

Ethan is always right in the center of all the action.

One of the evenings was a big dinner at Aunt Darlas house. They have a huge porch where Grandpa set up his band equipment. Some of the cousins sang songs. We had a sing along and a slideshow on the big white wall. One slideshow was Great Grandma June life. She just turned 90 that day. They also did a slide show of last years reunion. All the kids got a kick out of seeing themsleves in a "movie." It was a great fun weekend. I just wish I was better at remembering the camera. We did many other great activites that I have no pictures of.

We went to the Aquarium this week. There are lots of fish behind us but you can't see them. Last week we went to the zoo but our mom and dad forgot the camera.
Mom keeps trying to get me to look at the camera but I have to keep an eye on these weird fish things behind me. They swim right up to the side and I talk to them and laugh.

Here we all are in front of the big tank.

That's our Ethan inside the giant carrot.

Please let me out mom I want to go swimming in the fountain.

Joshua and Sarah. Hurray and take the picture I have lots of exploring to do.

This is Sarah holding her new doll and all the doll's toys behind her. She did lots of chores for this doll and paid for it with her own money.

Today we decided to finish planting the garden. As you can see behind Joshua are the snow peas.

First we dig some holes and eat some dirt to check the quality.

Joshua checks the depth of the holes by standing in them.

Nope not deep enough, more digging.

Then before mom knew what was happening they decieded to add "a little" water to the garden.

Then "a little" more water. Notice how dirty the pool became.

That's about the time mom gave up gardening. It turned into a mud bath. But they sure did have fun. About 10 minutes after this picture was taken you couldn't even tell which kid was which becuase they were so covered in mud. The best part was mom hosing them down after they were done. So cold!

The next day the peas did get planted along with some strawberries. Now we have peas, beans, carrots, and strawberries. We might be getting the hang of this.