The madness has begun!

Life has officially become crazy at our house! Soccer and baseball have started. Between church and sports, I think that we will have something every single night until the first of July.

Nothing new is going on here, and I don't have anything creative or interesting to type today. Life is good, I love my family - I think that they are awesome. We are way behind on everything, but I know that we'll catch up. Survival mode doesn't last forever - thank goodness! I will try and take some pictures of everyone in the next few days, but please don't hold your breath waiting!

Well, it's been over a week since I last posted...I am sorry. I wanted to post more often, but it has been one of those weeks. We experienced our very first earth quake! It was freaky to say the least. Everyone upstairs woke up from the shaking. The boys down in the basement slept through it. Jake was very disappointed that he missed it. He did get to feel a smaller version later in the day. There was a 4.5 aftershock while they were at school.

Elise is growing up so fast. She discovered her voice this week and has been cooing and talking to me. I just love her little voice. She smiles lots more too.

Here a few of pictures that we took today.

Spring has sprung - NOT!

OK, the weather here is ridiculous! Here it is almost the middle of April, and we had rainy snow last night! The high temperature today is supposed to be 42. I doubt we make that because it is supposed to be rainy too. It is 38 with a wind chill of 28 right now...

Even though the weather doesn't feel like it, it is beginning to LOOK like spring around here. The grass is getting greener and my very favorite tree in our yard has bloomed. It is a star magnolia. It blooms early, before any of the trees get leaves. Seeing its beautiful flowers makes me feel happy. We think it looks like a daisy tree!

Our "Daisy" tree against a stormy sky.


An up close blossom.

Have a happy Saturday!

Pretty in pink

It is hard to believe that Elise will be 6 weeks old soon! She is still pretty tiny, but she is really alert. She smiles at us, and really holds her head up well. We sure love her!!! I really think that she has grown a lot. However, last night I held the cell phone next to her head, and it is still just as big as in the picture from our earlier post! She is filling out though. Her little legs aren't as skinny anymore.

Hey Everybody It's Family Night!

Our church leaders have always counseled us to hold Family Home Evening (FHE) on Monday nights. Traditionally, our family has been very good at holding FHE, but with homework, dinner, baths and earlier bedtimes our family nights have been shortened drastically. We usually do something, but not like we did when the kids were home. They have really started to complain about our less than quality family nights. So, we decided to make FHE more of a priority. Here are some of the things that we did:

• Neil leaves work at 5:00 and no later.
  
• Kids must be home by 5 from friends' houses.
• Dinner is served promptly at 5:30
• FHE starts at 6 or 6:30
• We re-did our assignment chart, and everyone has a job to do (which should be prepared in advance).
  

Well, this past Monday we did it! We had a great FHE. For the activity Neil took the kids to the park near our home to fly kites. I stayed home with Elise and made homemade pizza and the treats for FHE (snickerdoodles). After dinner Anna did the lesson, we sang a couple of songs, had milk and cookies and got the kids to bed by 9:00 (a little later than normal, but lots earlier than other FHE nights). All in all, I feel that it was a big success.

Here are some pictures from the kite flying activity...

Let's go fly a kite!

A couple of my favorite talks

I liked Elder Ballard's talk on mothers. You can listen to it by clicking here.


I also really liked President Eyring's talk to the Young Women the weekend before conference at the Young Women's broadcast. You can listen to it here, or you can watch it here.

I feel renewed

We had General Conference this weekend. It is for our church, we get to hear from our prophet and other church leaders. The conference is broadcast all over the world. Our family watches it over the internet. I feel renewed and ready to face my challenges. I love hearing our leaders give us counsel, and I also love the time with my family. We have a tradition of having lots of treats and watching conference together all weekend. There are 4 two hour sessions on Saturday and Sunday. We get lots of treats and watch conference. This year we did fruit and vegie trays, crackers, cheese, chips and jelly belly jelly beans. I print off activity packets to entertain the kids (conference related). It is really neat to see the older 4 kids take notes on conference. They get lots out of it too. It amazes me how much they take in.

Today I am tackling the laundry mountain in our laundry room. It is no longer a mountain. I have done 4 loads already, and I have 5 more to go. Even if I get it all done (I won't), in a few hours when the kids get jammies on, there will be 2-3 more loads! I just Love laundry! As a matter of fact, I am off to the laundry dungeon right now! Have a great week!

My it sure is foggy in here.....

Or is it just my mommy brain???!!?? People keep asking if we are all adjusted to the new baby, and I just have to laugh. We aren't even close!! We are in survival mode more than ever. I am lucky to get Anna, Elise and myself dressed by lunch. Our laundry looks like this (BTW, not my laundry, I got the picture off the web):


And I feel like one of these:


I know that this adjustment period is just that...a short period relatively speaking. But when you are in the middle of it - boy, does it seem impossible. I know I have already said this, but I keep telling myself that it is OK, and that I need to spend as much time as possible with the little girls while they are still little. This will be over before I can blink!

All of the other kids are doing well. Sarah and Jake are going to a dance at the Jr. High this weekend. They are both looking forward to it. Bekah and I have made a deal that if she practices her violin for 100 days in a row, I will take her out on a date. She loves challenges like that.

Neil has been such a support through all of this. He does anything in his power to make sure I have a little time to myself. He is so behind at work, yet he takes time off for me to go to lunch with the ladies. He stays up late doing dishes and laundry and wakes up early to get the kids ready for school. I really don't deserve all of the royal treatment I get from him. What a good man!

Spring is in sight! It has been a little warmer here (not warm mind you - just warmer). The temperature this week has been in the 40's and 50's (sick and wrong to consider that warm, but my kids do!), and for the next several days it is forecast to be in the low 60's! I am so sick of cold wet weather and mud, and so excited for the warm weather to arrive.

Well, I am off to work on that mountain of laundry before Elise wakes up. I miss you all!