Thank You

I owe a few thank yous for my evening last night.

First, thank you Sheriff for babysitting your three younger brothers. No easy task. I KNOW. I am their mother after all and I know what it is like trying to get them ready for bed each and every night. So no, I don't have magical powers to get Smiley into bed ... he just listens to me a TINY bit better than his older brother. (a tiny bit) Kudos to you for your patience as he sat on the bottom step and cried when it was time to go to bed. (Thanks for not dragging him up the stairs.)

Second, thank you to my awesome sister April, and her husband Drew, for coming with us. It is always fun hanging out with them and makes the evening even MORE enjoyable (even if you don't get my jokes).

My third thank you goes to Brian Regan himself for making us laugh until our stomachs hurt. From his rendition of a Christmas tree and the "meaning" of the lights, to getting older and the "no jokes" sign at the airport, he kept us laughing all through the act.

My final thanks must of course go to the son who will be folding all of the laundry today (he will remain unnamed). :) Said son had a tough time following the rules while we were gone last night and earned some extra jobs. Lucky for me I won't have to fold the laundry .... he will.

Life

Life doesn't always turn out how you plan it to or how you expect it to. This is certainly the case in my life. I got married later than I wanted to ...


but I have the best husband in the whole world (and he's holding an award for best father so he has that going for him too).

My plan long ago was to have 4 children (it didn't matter if they were boys or girls). They didn't come when or how I expected. Sheriff took his own sweet time coming with lots of medical procedures and expenses. Wannabe, Giggles and Smiley came years later through adoption.


I learned many things as I went through these experiences - waiting for something special to happen in my life. In the case of our little fostergirl our long wait to find out her fate has ended and she will return to her birthfamily. We are not empty handed however as she brought something special to our home the last 7 1/2 months. She brought a softness to our family that girls and babies bring. She melted our hearts, brought smiles to our faces, brought boys big and small to their kness, had me playing Primary songs on the piano to put her to sleep, and drew our family closer together as we prayed for her future.

As her time with our family draws to a close she will take with her our prayers, our hopes for bright and beautiful future, and the love of a family who will always remember her and think of her.


Thanks to all for your kind thoughts, prayers, tears and hugs!

What If???

What if you only had one week left with your child ... how would you spend your time with them?
Would you put off that run to the grocery store until later even though you are running low on things - and instead sit down and play pretend, hugging stuffed animals, talking on a toy phone, building blocks and pushing them on a play car?

What if you only had 3 days left with your child... how would you spend your time with them?
Would you surround them with toys and walk away or would you get down on the floor and read them a book, teach them their colors, sing them the alphabet song?

What if you only had 1 day left with your child ... how would spend your time with them?
Would you get mad at them because they dropped their food on the floor for the umpteenth time? Or would you make them their favorite meal, their favorite dessert and maybe even play their favorite game after dinner.

What if you only had one hour left with your child... how would you spend your time with them?
Would you waste a single minute getting angry at them for little things that in the long run don't matter? Or would you hold them, hug them, kiss them, tell them how much you love, how proud you are of them, how important they are and that they will always be a part of your family.

We often don't know what is around the corner but we have the opportunity to let our children know now where they stand in our hearts.

Uncle Jeff impresses kids

Recently my brother-in-law Jeff participated in a fund raiser called Over The Top which was raising money for the Special Olympics. The idea was to sponsor these individuals (donate money to the cause) and they would repel down a very high hotel in return and hopefully stay alive in the process.

Jeff wore one of his favorite shirts for the occasion:



We couldn't believe how high the starting point was....


Some of us were more concerned about who we wished we were sitting beside but weren't because someone else got there first...




Finally it was Jeff's turn and he made it look so easy...


How high is that???



It was amazing to see Jeff come down from that height! Of course we had to stick around and see a local celebrity do the same...



As an added bonus the boys got to meet him later:




Thanks for a great morning Jeff and for taking time for a worthy cause.

Family Reunion Bound

After Brett's parents rescued (towed back) our busted boat from Lake Powell last week end, his mom said to him "now you're going to the family reunion - right?" Hahaha!!! There was no getting out of it now. Actually we were already going to it anyways but this cinched it FOR SURE!!! Only death or worse could have prevented us from attending after that favor!!

So I made up a pasta salad, we packed up some chairs and all the kiddies and headed out for Brett's grandpa's family reunion.

There was lots of great food: (sorry Roxy... I'm famous for taking pics of people in the middle of eating... just ask Dede)
and the kids had a great time playing:



Of course everyone thought Brett was still single because he wasn't wearing a ring...
just kidding (he did get teased a lot for losing it though.)


I have to say that I love Brett's family and did from the very start. They are wonderful people full of generosity and love that welcomed me in and made me feel a part of the family. I am family.
Families come in all shapes and sizes but nothing beats the love of family.

Cool Tricks

Can I just say that I loooooooooooove my Photoshop Elements class that I am taking through the community class I signed up for? I have learned so many things (which I am already quickly forgetting due my braindead nature) but still... what a great class!!!

Last night one of the fantastic things we learned was how to combine photos in panoramic pictures and also how to combine pictures in a scenario such as when you are taking group shots and some people have nice faces and others don't. Well some people can't help that they don't have a nice face and no amount of editing, stamping with the clone tool or healing tool is going to change that (I'm one of those people). I'm referring to those goofball kids who think that picture-taking time is the time to make goof-ball faces. Let me give you an example of some of the faces ...







And here is the end result after using the photomerge group option in Elements and also a little cutting and pasting for a couple of trickier faces. I used 4 photographs to make one happy family photograph. (sorry about the lighting... it isn't very good... but at least there are no more goofy faces... they can go in the scrapbook and the smiley ones can go on the wall).



The photomerge group has given me hope that my group shots are no longer ruined if everyone isn't smiling or looking right in one shot. If I take a bunch of pictures I still have hope that I can combine the shots into one nice photo. Yeah!!!!!

Thanksgiving Day Activities

What a day...what a day!!!! While I gave my youngest a long overdue haircut I looked for a show on t.v. to catch his attention. I found something that caught all 4 boys' attention.  

No, it wasn't this....

It was this....

Brett could not believe his eyes when he came upstairs and saw his boys watching a Barbie movie on t.v.  In all fairness what initially caught their attention was a mean dragon but the mean dragon did not have the spotlight for long.  Oh and also please note in the pictures the resulting haircut on my youngest.... I did pull out the correct attachment but got distracted and forgot to put it on and simply started buzzing his hair with the attachment that was currently on the clippers ..... the #1.  Can you say soldier boy?????  Yikes!!!!

After the haircut I got myself ready and then made my thanksgiving assignment.... Cauliflower casserole.  yummy!!!

One head of cauliflower cut up and boiled until cooked through

one 8 oz package of mushrooms sliced

one cup grated cheddar cheese

one tin cream of chicken soup

approx. 1 cup of italian seasoned bread crumbs (you can make your own bread crumbs with 2 slices of whole wheat bread crust crumbled in a blender and then mix a teaspoon of italian seasoning into it)

As the cauliflower is cooking, fry up the mushrooms in a frying pan sprayed with non-stick spray.  Combine the cheese and tin of cream of chicken soup (do not add water) in a sauce pan and put on medium low heat stirring frequently until all the cheese is melted and it creates a sauce.  Drain the cooked cauliflower and place it in a non-stick pan or casserole dish sprayed with cooking spray.   Sprinkle the fried mushrooms on top of the cauliflower.  Pour the cheese sauce over top of the cauliflower and mushrooms.  Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of the casserole.  Set your oven to broil.  Put the casserole in the over (do not cover it) and broil for two minutes.  Check to see if the bread crumbs have browned.  If they are not quite brown yet give it another minute but do not walk away! The bread crumbs go quickly from a golden brown to burned if you do not watch carefully.  When the bread crumb top has browned pull it out of the oven and you are ready to eat.  

The above picture was actually taken before going into the oven.

Well what would Thanksgiving be without eating some great food?

or being chased by Grandpa's remote control car...

Man down!!!

or playing with Grandma's toys...

or being stared down by great-grandpa's scary cow... (note how far away my oldest is from the cow).

and how mean he was looking at me??? yikes!! 

My youngest was standing at the fence and the cow ran at him.  He jumped back and started laughing...

 That cow will be hamburger meat in a few days.  I think he knows it!!!

And of course mom makes you have your picture taken before you can have your dessert.  

It was a great day and we love getting together with family.  Family is something we are so thankful for.  Other things my boys said they were thankful for included but are in no particular order: our house, life, their body, the earth, friends, food, moms and dads, Heavenly Father and Jesus, Legos, Christmas lights, people, animals, plants, and of course brothers.

Good luck to all those who are braving the stores tomorrow.  I have chosen to stay home and believe it or not... sew.  I have to finish my Festival of Trees entry.  I still have the binding to do on three stockings before I am done.  Good luck in the stores!!!!!

Family Pictures

Another wonderful Conference weekend full of great talks (and great food).  My boys had a hard time grasping the concept that we would not be going to church on Sunday but would be going to Grandma's house instead and watching conference and the prophet on t.v. in place of church.  This was explained multiple times and they still didn't quite get it... oh well...I'll add smart pills to their cereal in the morning.  Just kidding... I ran out of them last week.

In between Sunday sessions we took a few family pictures with extended and immediate family.  The rain cooperated and stopped for picture time.  My kids were the worst with the goofy silly faces... sigh... I had to give the lecture later about how to act for picture taking.  I had failed to take several things into account #1) my 8 year old thinks his poses are "cool" #2) my six year old when put in front of the camera either does goofy faces or somber faces (it is challenge to get a natural smile) #3) my 4 year old feeds off the goofiness of those around him #4) my 3 year old is in a world of his old and does whatever he wants to do regardless of what you ask him to do.  The result... I wish my mother-in-law the best of luck in choosing a family photo that does not have one of my son's doing something objectionable.  

We had better luck when it was just our immediate family.