Crazy kooky Family Adventures

Happy Valentines Day!!!!

2012-02-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Me and my Sweetheart!

For the "love of MY life" Jimmy Scratcher. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

This is for James! I can't imagine my life without him!

To my sweet kids who bring so much joy and meaning to my life. I am the luckiest mommy in the world! How did that happen? I know...I was blessed with them so they could teach me how to be a better person.

This is for all of my family! I am so happy to be part of such fun loving families. Family is really what life is about here on Earth. I am so blessed to be part of such awesome families! I love them soooo much!!!!

And of course I love my friends! How can I be so lucky to have met and kept so many good friends in my life? It sure isn't all of the effort I put forth...ask any of them! I am just lucky to meet the most generous, loving and forgiving people who like me even though they know how weird I am!!!

Kickin' It Into High Gear!

2012-02-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

Taylor and I goofing around while the boys were gone camping! We love our "girl time".

Averi got some glasses! I don't know if they help or not, but she is so dang cute wearing them! She actually likes wearing them too...time will tell.

*We have had such a BUSY year already! James and Christian have already had 2 scout overnight camping trips (I wish I had pictures). I don't know if I mentioned it, but James is now the 2nd Counselor in the Young Men, which means he is over Christian's class. I love that they are together!

*I just got put in as the 1st Counselor of Primary. I love primary, it is kind of like a marathon every Sunday...crazy! I am excited and since I was recently the Secretary I could jump right in. Of course, I'm going to miss the Ward Bulletin, it was the BEST calling! I knew it couldn't last long.

*My Grandma Empey passed away from cancer on her birthday Jan. 14th, she was 83. It was sad and good because she was so sick.

*James and I also got to go on a "business trip" together in January too! It was for the hospital and patient experience improvement, so I attended for my volunteer position. We took the kids and they stayed with their Grandma and Grandpa Williams while we were in our meeting, they had a lot of fun. It was so nice of them to keep the kids for us! James had to present in front of a ton of people! He did so good. I married one smart fella! I kinda love him-A LOT!!!

*James and I just got back from Mesa Arizona. We flew from I.F. there for a really quick trip. Averi's Aide from school- Renae- just got married in the Temple there. I am so lucky to have been to so many Temple Sealings lately! Each one was such a unique experience! I have learned so much. Renae married a wonderful man who's wife passed away from cancer a few years ago and she has been divorced for a few years too. I am so happy for them! We loved getting to go to her wedding! It was really sweet! I wanted to pick fresh fruit from the trees on the Temple grounds, but James wouldn't let me-I bet those limes and grapefruit were the best ever!!!! I don't think they would have cared!

We went to the Phoenix Zoo and spent a couple of days just having fun together. It was an awesome Valentine's Day trip. I had so much fun just laughing and spending time with him, he is THE BEST husband in the UNIVERSE!! My parents were so kind to once again keep our kids for us. I think I would be insane if it weren't for our awesome parents and the help they give us with our kids!!! I LOVE THEM!

*Now it's back to the grind! I guess we have to pay to play. James is swamped at work! Poor guy! I have to find something meaningful to do for my hospital volunteer job, plan some Sharing Times and one 5th grade Valentine party for Taylor's class, and try to wean myself from diet Dr. Pepper. Maybe I give off the wrong impression that I am sane or something? I need to quit that!

*Oh yeah! I can't forget to mention that in Arizona we went out with our friends the Chattertons after the wedding and we ate Alligator at the Islamorada restaurant in the Bass Pro Shop. It was good but weird, it had a funky texture like it was chewy and had goosebumps. I felt like the people on that "Swamp People" show, but with all of my teeth. I honestly don't know how they chew alligator with their lack of teeth! YIKES!

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

I cannot believe it is 2012! Time goes by so fast.!

So...for the first time in the past 20 years my New Year Resolution isn't to lose weight. Yahoo! Actually if you saw me today you may question this decision, but don't worry, I know what I am doing! I stopped dieting about 8 months ago and my life has been so nice. I lost 15 lbs. and I haven't put it back on-and I don't eat all salad and diet food. I eat what I want. So I am sticking with this to see where it takes me.

My new "resolutions" are going to be things like:

1) Do better at all of my "Churchie" things-scriptures, prayer, FHE...you know....the standard good stuff.

2) Don't try to be an "overachiever"! I am trying to do the KISS method. Keep It Simple Stupid! I tend to overdo things. I can still do what I like to do without having to go crazy doing it!

3) To do better at my "mommy" duties. I know I have been bad when my kids can't stop thanking me for making "real" food now. LOL! I made breakfast the other morning when I had my nephews and niece spend the night and Christian said "Are you starting to cook breakfast now?" I laughed and said heck no! I have Averi's therapists over starting at 7 am every morning. I used to cook breakfast, but now I am too busy in the mornings. Sad huh? I tell my kids they will thank me some day for giving them a chance to learn important life skills like laundry, cooking, cleaning, and yard work. It works most of the time.

So...if I have it in writing maybe I will feel more compelled to do this stuff, right?

I probably should include "be less crazy, less air-headed, less weird, or more normal, (or stop using so many exclamation marks when I write)" but that would mean I wouldn't have good stories to tell. I love to laugh at my crazy life experiences, it's too fun! And I like using exclamation marks because that is how I think inside of my head!!! It is really loud in there sometimes! : D

P.S.- I will be so mad if the world ends this year! We aren't planning any big vacations until 2013 so we can pay off our debt, so the Mayans better be wrong! I got a Mayan calendar, but I can't read Mayan, so I have no idea what it says. Who trusts people who played ball with other peoples head anyway? Not me!

Here is where the Mayans made up the future...

This is me standing on their "human head" ball field-Gross! I won't even tell you what else they did...freaky!

MERRY CHRISTMAS CRAZINESS!

2011-12-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

O.K.-I made it through the shopping season without ending up in prison or the mental hospital...barely! I am soooo ready for Christmas to be here. My kids' brains have been taken over by some crazy
hopped-up-on-sugar zombie trance, and I have been baking so much that my hands are literally cracked and bleeding. That reminds me...

Note to self: DON'T BAKE NEIGHBOR GIFTS NEXT YEAR! I know you will forget how you feel right now by the time next Christmas rolls around, but trust me self....you HATED it! Your feet were sore and swollen and you aren't really that efficient at the whole process either. Sorry, but it's true. Besides that, your neighbors probably had gotten so many goodies that they eventually threw yours away because they can't stand to look at one more fancy little decorated edible creation! Next year, do something easier!

LOVE,

Yourself

We attended a few Christmas parties and I found this little creation on Pinterest to copy: Can you believe I made this?! I can't!

(I love finding such easy things to copy that make me look smart and creative. Thank you "pinecone -cheeseball" creator person!)

Isn't this little guy so cute?!

We hope you have all had a "semi-stressless" Christmas experience! We are so grateful for the many blessings our family has, especially our wonderful friends and family!

*I need to send a "shout-out" to Amazon.com for having almost everything I needed so I didn't have to go out into the war zones in the stores too much.

*Also I would love to thank the people who left a bag of canned goods on our front porch on Sunday...we weren't in need of them this year, but it was very thoughtful.

My favorite thing is that James is going CRAZY wondering who left it. Ha Ha! It may seem as though I am mocking this, but we have been so poor before that we depended on other people and their kindness-trust me! I thought it was really sweet and I will pass it on to someone who needs it more than us this year. We are very blessed at the moment to have steady employment...let's hope it stays that way for a long, long time!

James is such a hard worker, I appreciate his willingness to work so hard so that I can stay home and take care of our home and children. I kind of love him A LOT!

*One of the best parts of this whole year was attending the Sealing of my brother Chris to his wife Diana, their daughter Clara and her sweet daughter Hannah who passed away 3 years ago. Also, last week we got to attend the Sealing of our new adopted nephew Layton to James' brother Travis, his wife Amanda and their 6 kids. It was so sweet! I love the chance to have a glimpse of eternity. These are the moments that truly bring us closer to our brother Jesus Christ and help us know how miraculous and amazing his birth truly was.

TO OUR NEIGHBORS-

2011-12-19T13:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Neighbors (Bishop),

First of all...I hope you know how much we love you guys!!! We love being your neighbors and we love how awesome you are! (yes-I am kissing up)

Secondly...the wreath incident wasn't really an "incident"! We like to use anything possible as an excuse to be lazy and not decorate our yard. We know you didn't intentionally buy your wreaths bigger than ours!

Thirdly...I am such a dork sometimes! Please know that I am sometimes too obnoxious for my own good.

We really couldn't have hand picked better neighbors!!! We are blessed to know you!
Love,
Amber

THIS IS SOOO LONG!

2011-12-12T18:03:00.000-08:00

FIRST OF ALL:
This is what happens when your kids get your camera.
Fun surprises...hmmmm....YIKES!

Here are a couple of pictures from Thanksgiving:

I either forget to bring my camera or bring it and forget to use it. I snapped a couple of interesting pictures though:

This is my brother sweeping. I know it seems like a weird picture, but I think this is the first time I have ever seen him sweep anything. I know he won't look at my blog so I can make fun of him all I want
HA HA HA!

This is another weird one...Christian wanted a picture with Averi and of course SANTA!


This is Averi and her Great Grandma Taylor/Johnson. Averi doesn't look like she is smiling, but she really is! We are still trying to teach her how to smile in pictures. It is sooo cute! I think that is what Grandma is laughing so hard about.


My nephew Brody spent the night before Thanksgiving with us. I bet his parents were surprised when he showed up painted like a clown! I was laughing my head off! I didn't want to let him do that but I thought he is only a kid once...who cares?!

Now...here is where my life gets crazy! Some of you may have to sit down before reading this. Drum roll please.......I AM DOMESTICATED (well...kind of)! Yahoo!

See, I wasn't born with the Martha Stewart gene, so this has been a challenge for me for about hmmm...let's see...well, since I moved away to college. I was lucky enough to have room mates who loved to do laundry and cook all of the time.

I tried my hand at many homemaking skills but I get bored easily and I can only do so much. James and I have a team work system worked out at our house, but lately I have been thinking I need to step it up a little. Also...I am heading into hibernation season when I get "winter blues". I decided that the busier I am the less time my body has to think it needs to sleep, and eat.

Now, some of you may be thinking what James was thinking, and worry that I may burn myself out by taking on too much at once. Well, I have had that worry myself, but I think I better do as much as I can while it still seems fun. : )

These are some of the projects I have been trying out:

1) Make a menu and actually use it! I have the pickiest kids and they have driven me to frozen pizza, macaroni, and chicken strips for far too long. I have taken back the kitchen and I have made stuff like stuffed shells and chicken, orange chicken and rice, meatloaf, and all sorts of yummy casseroles. It has been a challenge for my kids, but I think they are learning that flavor can be good in food.

2) I decorated some of our yard for Christmas. This may not seem like a big deal to most people, but after the big wreath incident of 2006, we had banned all outdoor decorations...until now. (the incident is that we had bought these cute big wreaths to hang at the peaks of our house and we thought we were doing something really special when soon after our neighbor-who is our bishop and we totally like him don't get me wrong-well...he came home one day with the same wreaths, only 10 times bigger and with lights on them and hung them up on the peaks of his house. Our wreaths looked like little baby wreaths compared to his and we lived in the shadow of his wreaths that whole winter!)

O.K., that was a little dramatic, but it was real to us! I decided that our yard has been barren too long and I don't care how small our wreaths are, I displayed them proudly. However, I did scare my other neighbor guy while he watched me carry around a HUGE ladder and climb to the top all by myself. He kept asking me if he could help but I am very stubborn and kept turning down his help. I think he was mostly scared that if I fell he may have to give me CPR or mouth-to-mouth.

3) Being frugal. I used to be frugal, but I lost my desire to compare prices and coupon years ago! It just wasn't for me I guess. However I thought of my sweet husband working so hard and wondered if there were ways I could help save money around the house without giving up some of the finer things in life.

I had all of these super cool decorating ideas in my head for Christmas but had a very, very small budget. I decided to re-purpose and get creative. I was at Fred Meyer and saw some scraps of trimmed Christmas Tress that were waiting to be thrown out and I asked them if I could have them. They gladly let me take them off of their hands. Then I needed some filler for my project and decided that I could cut down my way overgrown sage bushes and spray paint them red to go in the middle. I created a my own decoration.

Now...you have to just trust me when I say it was way cuter a couple of weeks ago before the branches started dying and the wind has blown them to pieces. TA-DA:

Imagine it lush and green...that how it started out. Nothing lasts forever I guess. : )

Averi with me shopping. It was very stressful. I ended up coming home and debating for too long and lost interest in the whole project...so this is what got thrown on a wreath and hung on our door. This is my "I'm too tired to make this look any better" wreath.

5) For James' work, every department gets to choose a wreath to decorate and then auction off for charity every year. This year he waited and waited until a couple of days before it was due and had no takers. So...I had one night to come up with something. I was still sick of wreaths, and I felt like I had used up all of my creative juices, so I was a little stressed out. I threw this together and put TONS of glitter on it hoping that the sparkly effect would attract someone to it. I don't know how much it sold for or if it won any of the showmanship awards, and I don't care either! I just sent it and hoped for the best. It could have looked a lot worse...

6) Lastly, I decided to make my own cleaning products. This made me feel sooo smart! It took a little effort, but I think it saved a TON of money. I made dishwasher soap, hand soap, febreeze, furniture polish, and general cleaner. So far, so good.

I also found a lot of cute clothing items I would love to have, especially scarves. I am really into them right now. I found a lot of cute ones I liked, but they were so expensive! So...I made my own! Without sewing or any "making" skills at all. I took yarn and tied it together in a pattern and it only cost about $2.00. I also taught Taylor how to do it too. We are so proud of ourselves. We love them too. Here is a picture of mine being worn by my lovely banister.

So...don't be surprised if I do overdo it and burn out. I will have fun for now and at least have dinner on the table for my family most nights...that saves a lot of money too.

I guess I should start my Christmas shopping now...it is already December 12th. OOPS!

HAPPY (late) THANKSGIVING!!!!

2011-11-25T18:16:00.000-08:00

I love these cartoons!

I know this isn't a very inspirational post on Thankfulnesses...sorry! I thought this better portrayed my real self!

I hope all ya'll had a very "fulfilling" (ha ha) Thanksgiving day! We ate soooo much!!! I made funeral potatoes with bacon, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top and cranberry/apple sausage stuffing. YUMMY!!!! My mom made the turkey, ham, rolls and salads and Chris and Diana brought pies and green bean casserole. We had enough for 50 people and only 7 adults and 5 kids. WOW! I am still full. It was ALL yum-yum-yum-yum-yum-yum-yum...delicioso!!!

I am thankful for laughter--- except when milk comes out of my nose.

2011-11-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

This is my "theme" quote!

Warning!!!!

Attending public events with me could cause you extreme embarrassment! I cannot be trusted to act mature in certain settings. Be friends with me at your own risk!

Last night I went to a Court of honor for Scouts and they were giving out Wood Badges to 3 adults. There was no hope for me to take it seriously!!

-First some guy blew some weird horn thingy without any warning and I almost peed my pants. -Then they sang some song and a guy said with such a straight face "while we are singing this song please stand when we name the critter you represent"

WHAT THE CRUD?!?

I was looking around watching people popping up proudly in the audience while singing some weird song and everyone was just acting like that was normal. I was dying of laughter inside hoping I wasn't supposed to know what "critter" I represented because I wasn't in any condition to stand up!

-Finally I couldn't hold it in any longer...I busted out in out in crazy loud laughter-OOPS! James almost had to escort me out of the stake center gym.

James, Christian and I all had to contain our laughter for the rest of the meeting. I just can't take ceremonies like that seriously...I think I am so immature. I shouldn't be allowed in public. Luckily I held it together after that and laughed until I was crying all the way home! My poor family...James and Christian are so nice and quiet and then they have to have me as a wife and mom.

I guess I try not to take life too seriously! I have to find even the smallest amount of humor in everyday life or I will literally go insane!

I apologize ahead of time for any inappropriate laughter you may hear from me. I am supposed to be teaching Averi proper behavior. Boy is she in trouble!

I am so thankful for a sense of humor though! I think almost everything seems easier to handle with a good dose of laughter.

Above all else: go out with a sense of humor. It is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life.

~Hugh Sidey

THANK WHO?

2011-11-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

I have seen everyone writing what they are thankful for. I have been thinking of all of the many eloquent, meaningful, wise ways to express the many things I am thankful for...but that isn't the way my mind works.

So I saw this quote on Pinterest today and I thought "A-HA"! This is such a thought provoking question. I think I am thankful for a million-and-one things! I couldn't possibly get any sleep if I tried to thank Heavenly Father for everything I am thankful for!

BUT...this made me think that since yesterday was such a lazy day for me "prayerwise", I wondered what it is I would have woke up with. I would be ashamed to post what today would have looked like if this quote came true. YIKES!! How embarrassed I feel today!

I need to not only remember to be thankful for my blessings everyday, but WHOM (I am trying to fool everyone into thinking I know correct grammar too, I don't even know if "whom" is right, but it sounded smart) to thank for my blessings EVERYDAY!

Dr. Seuss is sooo smart!

2011-11-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

*I used to think that Dr. Seuss was some weird guy who was always on drugs. After having been alive as long as I have and after learning that my mind is as warped or even more warped than his I think I should embrace his crazy teachings! : )

I do something stupid EVERY DAY! Thank goodness I am blessed to be surrounded by people who love me anyway!

I am trying to stop comparing myself to others and what I can't do. I think it is SO important to teach my kids that talents come in many forms.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

Dr. Seuss

I have a family with many talents that can't be seen with the eyes:

James is so hard working, wise, smart, patient, loving, spiritual and can make anything sound brilliant because of his talent with words. He is also such an adoring husband and loving father.

Christian is so sweet, smart, funny, hard working, and also has a talent with words like his dad because he is such a quick little witty thinker. He can twist words and change perspective so quickly, he is always making me laugh

Taylor is happy, compassionate, motherly, loving, smart, and so kind to everyone. She is like the "kid whisperer" and can play with and entertain anyone! She is always smiling and happy. She is just plain lovable!

Averi is so happy, funny, imaginative, innocent, sweet, smart, and loving. She loves everyone she meets. She remembers any kind deed done for her down to the date and time. She doesn't even know how to be judgmental which I LOVE!!! Everyone who meets her can't help but love her.

*I have learned a lot from having a blind child. She can't judge people by what their outward appearances are. She doesn't know if they have perfect features/looks, perfect body, perfect crafting/artsy skills, or a perfect home. Averi really "sees" the person for who they are on the inside. I wish I could always view the world from her perspective.

I have a lot of regrets about how I have treated others in the past. I am tormented by those memories and I have received my punishment through regret, shame and guilt!! I hope to be an example to my children and live my life in a way that I don't have to avoid someone or feel guilty for years because of the way I have acted or treated them.

“Today I shall behave, as if this is the day I will be remembered.”

Dr. Seuss

Hardships, mistakes, problems, sorrow, pain and suffering teach us strength, wisdom, compassion and happiness. Accept trials with grace and faith and you will be able to handle what comes your way- you will also gain skills to help others in the future.

"I'm sorry to say so, but sadly it's true, that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you"

Dr. Seuss

“When you think things are bad,
when you feel sour and blue,
when you start to get mad...
you should do what I do!
Just tell yourself, Duckie,
you're really quite lucky!
Some people are much more...
oh, ever so much more...
oh, muchly much-much more
unlucky than you!”

Dr. Seuss

“And when you're alone there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.”

Dr. Seuss

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. "

Dr. Seuss

And lastly REMEMBER...

"It's a troublesome world! All the people who're in it are troubled with troubles almost every minute. You ought to be thankful, a whole heaping lot, for the places and people you're lucky you're not."

Dr. Seuss

See...maybe he wasn't crazy afterall! Hmmm...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!!

2011-11-07T12:57:00.000-08:00

Isn't she SO BEAUTIFUL!

I want to wish HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweet MOM today! I am so lucky to be the daughter of a beautiful, talented, kind, funny, smart, and loving mother. I hope you have a great birthday MOM! Thank you so much for all you do for me, I don't know what I would do without you! I love you sooooo much!

2011-11-03T19:12:00.000-07:00

My whole house is falling apart! In the last month:
1) My bathroom toilet handle broke (which I have been flushing by opening the lid and pulling the chain)
2) Our furnace fan broke (which I replaced with my oven with the door open for heat)
3) Our bathtub faucet is a river (which I turn the main water off when I don't need it to save money on my water bill)
4) My leather couch seam is coming apart (which I just look at and think I am a "redneck")
5) AND>>>I have a huge gap where the weatherstripping came off my front door (which I throw a big towel in front of to keep my oven heat in)

How's that for adapting?! No...I think it is the epitome of laziness! I will find the laziest way to put a band-aid on stuff until I get around to fixing it!

Luckily our awesome cousin Joe fixed our furnace...working like magic! While we were waiting for parts my oven was used as a heater more than it has ever been used to cook with. I guess it was good for something. Ha ha!

James has been out of town all week and I really miss him!!! I don't know why, but I am way more efficient with him gone! I don't know if it is because I can't pawn my work off onto him or what, but I run a tight ship when I am the lone captain! We run like clockwork around here!

I guess I will go watch You Tube videos and try to learn how to repair some stuff in my spare time. I am going to try to sew my couch together which should be very interesting...I must be really bored!!

NEVERENDING HALLOWEEN!!!

2011-11-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I don't love this holiday, but my kids sure do. I have to say that I do benefit from having picky kids though...they hate Almond Joy candy bars! James and I love anything with coconut, so we get their "rejected" candy. YUMMY!

TAYLOR:
The sweetest ever! I told her she had to use a sheet and go as a ghost and she agreed. I accidentally cut the head hole too big though-OOPS! Who knew her head was so dang small?! She went with the face paint and had to sew her head hole smaller with her sewing class skills. It was cute, she wouldn't let me sew it because she said I didn't know how (I will keep that illusion alive as long as I can)! I do the same thing with laundry and cooking, it works out well. Ha ha!

This isn't from Halloween. I found it and loved it so I had to post it. Taylor and her "mini-me" Clara.

CHRISTIAN:
I don't know what he went as, but it was gross! He wanted a bullet entry/exit wound in his cheeks and some kind of gash in his forehead. I don't know why...kind of morbid. I think he takes after me that way unfortunately.

My first attempt at special effect makeup! Not to shabby huh? I found out how to do this on YouTube. Not my favorite source for information, but it was very helpful on Halloween.

AVERI:
You can't tell from these pictures, but she went as a 15 yr. old witch. The witch part is obvious, but the 15 yr. old isn't so much. She always wants to pretend like she is 15 for some reason, so cute! She had tons of fun.

FUNNY STORY: I took her to KMART earlier in the day and some little kids saw her and asked her dad if she was dressed up like a blind person because she was walking with her cane! Soooo funny! I totally need to take advantage of my built in props for next year! I need to dress up all my kids like mice and give them canes! Ha Ha! I am just kidding...maybe...hmmmm! I will keep you posted on that one.

They are so cute and we are all in crazy sugar comas now! Cranky and tired! I am going to bed early! James is out of town so it is Queen Mommy time! YAHOO! What shall I do?

Volunteering is fun to do, fun to do, to do, to do...

2011-10-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Recently I took on a new project of being a volunteer at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center as a member on a Patient and Family Advisory Council. I get to go meet with other patients and family along with hospital staff and administrators and we talk about ways to improve patient care.

Because of my "gift of gab" and gullibility I volunteer to do the craziest things. In August the hospital had a "Town Hall Meeting" for all 1300 workers to attend and listen to a few speakers and guess who said "yes" to being a speaker? Yup...yours truly! I don't even want to talk at church let alone in front of that many people who include all of James' bosses. I thought I would be an idiot and get him fired for sure! I had about a month and several dry runs to practice and I actually had it memorized! I was so proud of myself. I didn't do too bad either...well compared to what I saw happening in my mind and nightmares at night!

Yesterday I did it again! I said yes when I was asked to speak to all of the directors at the hospital about the important role of nurses. I have to speak to all of the directors and CEO people at the hospital, including James. Maybe they will feel sorry for him when they see what a crazy wife he has to live with! Ha Ha! At least give him a raise to pay for my crazy pills.

I find it very therapeutic to turn a terrible ordeal with Averi into something that may help other families. The coolest thing is that James' bosses listen to everything I say and actually do the things we suggest! It is awesome! What a power trip! Just kidding (kind of).

Averi on the day they were going to turn off her life support

Such a cute pic. of when Ave could still see us.

Daddy and Ave

Poor little bald Chemotherapy baby! OH! Silky is in her hand!
One of MANY silkies!!!

In a 5 month coma. With a BAD rash from Bone Marrow Transplant. Silky by her head.

The first time in months I got to hold Averi

Thanksgiving a few weeks before we found out Ave was sick. This was a very rare smile!

Not my best look...I can tell I had some pain meds in my blood-I have crazy eyes!

Look at these two! Like little twins!

My girls! Taylor has been Ave's best friend from this moment on

My little helper buddy!

Happy all of the time Averi! She loves life!

Do I have gullible written on my forehead!?! NOOOOO!!!!!! I do have dark circles under my eyes though...yikes!

This and that and other stuff.

2011-10-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

Here is post #2 of this year-I am on a roll!

I'm a Pirate! No not for Halloween, but in real life. I think I am anyway...if that is what someone who blog stalks and steals pictures from her family is called, that is what I am. And I am not sorry about it either. I need to take advantage of other people being smarter and less lazy than I am. I ALWAYS FORGET MY CAMERA!!!!!

AVERI

Our sweet little miracle baby Ave turned 9 this year on August 9th. We waited a little bit longer to baptize her so that she could understand it better. Although I think she is perfect and that she is a special spirit who probably doesn't need to be baptized, but she wanted to do it. We were so proud of her and she was so proud of herself. I was glad I had to go "behind the scenes" to help her because I was a big bawl baby and cried out of pure joy that she is with us and got the chance to have this moment.

The funniest thing was that she jumped up after she was dunked and yelled "I AM BAPTIZED!" and then for some reason she wouldn't put her feet on the bottom of the font and James had to pull her along to the stairs with her feet floating behind her. It was so funny...I loved it soo much! She is amazing and brilliant!

They are so cute!

Grandma and Grandpa Williams

Grandma and Grandpa Empey

My 2 cuties!

Averi practicing getting baptized...we had to do A LOT of practicing so she wouldn't be too nervous to lay back in the water. She did so awesome, not one glitch at all. Our prayers were answered!

Family picture...not of the baptism because I don't have one. So here we all are together anyway!

CHRISTIAN

My little tiny boy got ordained a Deacon in March when he turned 12. He gets to pass the sacrament and I am so proud of him. He just got made the Deacon Quorum President too and gave his first talk in sacrament a couple of weeks ago, but James wouldn't let me video tape it! I kept waving at him from the back row until my bishop saw me. I did the same thing the first day he passed the sacrament...it that weird? I can't help it! I am so proud of my little guy. Actually he is not so little anymore. He is 5 ft. 7 in. tall. I am only 5'4" and I think he outweighs me too. I AM SAD!

Christian and Austin his cousin-they are 13 days apart-so fun!

My football hero!

I have been babysitting my little niece Clara-Chris and Diana's baby and I have been playing with Nathan-Jessie and Ben's baby and I miss babies. I am sad that I didn't get the chance to enjoy Ave's baby months and that I couldn't have any more, but I love being an aunt! I get to sleep all night and still enjoy the little kiddos. I know I whine about kids sometimes, but I am really the luckiest mom in the whole world! I have the best kids!

Snuggling on the babies

Nathan

Averi

Me and my baby

TAYLOR JO

My heaven-sent little angel Taylor is so awesome! She has more talent in her little finger than I have or ever will have in my lifetime! She has been learning to sew and entered a patchwork pillow in the fair for 4H this year and got a ribbon for it! I was so proud of her. She helps me so much, I couldn't function without her most of the time. Heavenly Father knew I needed her for sure. My kids teach me so much. Taylor is my little best friend and I love it!

Taylor is so motherly, even to her puppy Bandit.

My BEAUTIFUL Taylor Jo and my niece Clara Jo...they are SO much alike

Look at that face!!!! Sooo sweet!

I have been BAD!

2011-10-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in sooooo long! I don't even remember how to do this. We have had a crazy 2011. Soooo crazy that I didn't even have time to blog about it...o.k., that is a lie! I was just far too lazy.

In April we took the kids to Disney World for Averi's Make-A-Wish trip. The best trip EVER!!!! It was a nice treat for our family to receive after the trials my kids have endured.

I was the photographer because James and the kids were sick of pictures so I had to FORCE them literally to stop and let me take pictures. So...no pictures of me-dang! I also can't get these pictures to move around very good. I've lost my blog skills.

WE ARE REALLY HERE!

WOW! They are darn cute huh?

This is at our Give Kids the World Village. This Rabbit guy is the "Mayor"...how do you explain a giant fake rabbit guy to a blind kid? Hmmmm....Averi wasn't too keen on him.

Averi had sooo much fun in the giant tub with bubbles.

We got to meet this Sea Lion Oggie. The nice "pirate" guy saw Averi in the audience and thought she should meet him because she couldn't see the show. Awwwee....

We had the coolest pool at the Village.

We got to really play with dolphins! They were just like puppies. They smile and laugh and LOVED to be pet. My dream come true. I love them. Averi said they were stinky and she thought they may bite her. Funny.

Averi LOVES Dr. Seuss. She was so excited to visit his village.

This is her favorite Seuss story. She just listened to it tell the story and laughed the whole time.

The best Daddy EVER!!!

SIlky's travels...we can't go anywhere without that pink thing. It is like another child for me. A good obedient one!

Poor Babycakes got sick and she and I stayed at our villa while daddy took Christian and Taylor to Animal Kingdom. SAD!

Ave still sick but determined to swim still. I took it easy on her.

The kids signed their name in the sand. Averi didn't want to. I should have done it anyway.

Averi got to add her star to the ceiling of the castle. We wrote her name in braille. She left her mark there.

The Village was AMAZING! We were treated like royalty I felt very comfortable with it. Ha ha!

Our very, very favorite ride! Averi loved it so much.

Our little villa.

Weirdos! There was actually NO water in that tub!

Manatees...what the heck! I am very fascinated with these HUGE sea "slugs". They just float up and down and sleep all day. We saw them in Belize too, I want one as a pet.

Our little pirate friend and a freakishly huge Walrus. Gross! It had a weird endearing quality though.

This is Sea World and the whale that accidentally killed that lady last year. It was it's first show back. We kept our distance.

We got presents on our table every day. We got so much fun stuff, it was like Christmas every day!

The plane ride with Averi was the funniest! She is scared of big rides and so I threw her on every big ride I could....I am mean! I wanted her to have fun. She liked them, so don't judge me! : ) On the airplane her favorite part was the turbulance! She kept saying "this is tickling my spleen" and everyone around was laughing. I loved it! Christian and Taylor loved it too, but it was a long 5 hrs. in the air both ways. OUCH!

So.... James and I took a little trip to Mexico with some of our friends...we are spoiled I know! I needed a vacation after a vacation with my kids. It was hard.

Cabo San Lucas

Real Wild Sea Lions

My cute Hubby risked his life to stand under these arches. All the men went and us women stayed on safe ground.

Not the best shot, but I had to show how happy we were.

A cool beach in the middle of NOWHERE! We were literally dropped off in the middle of the desert and told good luck...the beach is that way. I thought we were dead meat for sure. I am so glad James speaks Spanish. We were naive, but we lived and have fun adventures to talk about for years.

I should have been born in the tropics.

Our AWESOME travel friends. Travis and Louise Marchant, and Zach and Shauna Weiland. They are the BEST!

Isn't he so handsome?

Travis and Louise

Zach and Shauna

In the middle of Puerto Vierta on the way to our Zip Line tour. So Fun!

Sailing off into the Sunset!

Oh yeah...and I got in a wreck on Feb. 24th. Everyone was o.k., but it was freaky!

My poor car!

I will blog more....I don't want to overdo it today! Next is Averi's baptism and I have to steal pictures because of course we forgot our camera! BIG SURPRISE!

Tip Tuesday: Lazy mom idea # 2

2010-08-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

So here is a tip that not everyone can or would do! This year instead of going through all of the stress of the first day of school, I found an easier way to do it:

GO TO VEGAS AND LET MY MOM DO IT!!!!!

I know you are thinking I am an evil mom and that I am mean, but it really didn't happen on purpose. James had a work trip scheduled and wanted to take me with him to have a break after a LONG summer with the kids. Nice huh? Well...our school district decided to move our first day of school back 9 days!!! Ahhhhh...now instead of my kids missing a couple of days of school, I have to have my WONDERFUL, KIND, MARVELOUS,SWEET, PATIENT, AWESOME mom come over and do the "first day of school" thing while we are gone. We leave the 29th and school starts the 30th. Why do they do this to me!? I already have a guilty conscience about EVERYTHING, now it is missing the first day of school AND making my mom do it for me! I will loose LOTS of sleep over this one.

So...if you see my mom call her Saint Barbara because that is what she is! I can't repay for for this one, I will just have to "pay it forward" for someone else when I can!

THANK YOU MOM!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!

Remember that you are really giving me the gift of sanity!

i'm smelf smart... i self smarted myself

2010-08-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is my new philosophy on life! I think this is what has happened to my brain! Maybe I have too much stuff in it and now I am worried that if I get sick I won't have enough oxygen to heal myself. So...I need to stay dumber to stay healthier...it makes sense to me. ha ha ha LOVE IT!!!!

School is almost in session!!!!!

2010-08-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

This is how we all feel at our house right now. School break went 2 weeks longer than it was supposed to! WHY, WHY, WHY?!?! Don't they know what this can do to us moms? My kids are crazy, my neighbors kids are crazy, the neighborhood moms are all crazy, I think even my dogs have gone crazy! I love them, but I love them more when I have a break from them!

Here is what happens when we spend every day together!

Tip Tuesday: Lazy Mom idea #1

2010-08-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in soooo long! I want to start a running post so I have some goal to work towards! I thought that I could start a "tip Tuesday" post. Why "Tip Tuesday" you ask? Well....I have so many tips for being a lazy mom I thought I should share with y'all! I tell everyone I know that if you want to know the laziest/easiest way to do something to call me because I will know how!

My first tip is how to change a leaking tire-yes-on a car!

James' way:

1-Get out instruction manual and read what to do.

2-Dig and tear apart car trying to find where they hide all of the stupid tools in the thing!

3-Get out weird tools and try to match them up to pictures in book.

4-Lower spare from under car and try to figure out how to unhook it.

5-Unhook it

6-Try to figure how to use the stupid jack.

7-Try to fit the lug wrench into the custom tire spot

8-Try to fit the lug wrench into the custom tire spot

9-Try to fit the dang lug wrench into the dang custom tire lug stupid nut spot!

10-&%!@# lug wrench isn't going to fit!!!!!!

11-Break the custom hub trying to pry it out so the *$@# wrench might fit

12-There is NO way this could possibly work!!!!! It must need a custom wrench for the custom tire!

Amber watching with astonishment at the determination of James gets tired and hungry!!!!!

Amber's way:

1-Take Christian into the store and buy some tire fix-a-flat slime for 13.99

2-Bring slime out and read instructions on back

3-Apply slime to tire

4-Runs into little snag due to air in tire still

5-Has James jack up car and let all air out of tire

6-Fill tire with slime and air

7-Drive home (without tire going flat AT ALL)

This is a tribute to my sweet hubby who didn't know that you had to have a custom wrench to get off the custom lug nuts! Otherwise he would have had us on the road in 10 min. or less! He is always trying to do things the right way and I am always trying to do them the easiest way: I won this time!!!!!

Today is our anniversary! He is the most awesome husband! We have been married 14 years and we are still crazy about each other and from each other. I wouldn't want to go crazy with anyone else but him!

I WUV YOU SMOOOOPIE!

HO HO HO...Happy Halloween, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

2010-01-28T18:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah....I know it is a month late! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. As usual, we ate our body weight in junk and now that junk is in my trunk (if you know what I mean)! We had a very calm Christmas this year, everyone was very excited for the new toys and treasures they would get from Santa. Averi is especially funny because this is what/who she actually thought Santa was/is:

This cracks me up so much!!! Poor little door hanger Santa has been drug around so much that his beard is all but a few strands now. He looks more like homeless drunk Santa now! Luckily a blind kid won't judge him that way. I laugh at the fact that she thinks this little guy brings her toys. I wonder what that picture looks like in Averi's brain?! Funny! I think we set her straight when we went to a braille club party and she got to sit on the "real" Santa's lap. That was such a treat.

Thankfully Christian and Taylor still "believe" in Santa. I don't know what I will do when I can't use the "spy elves" as motivation for them to be nice to each other. I love the things we get to tell our kids and call it tradition!

This year is starting out pretty good. James just got a very busy E.Q. President church calling, so we will be pretty much even more crazy than usual. I am still an under cover member who is callingless...he he! The kids are lovin' school and so am I! I love my free mommy time, but now it is time to actually be productive, so I have to work my "trunk" off by using our new WII Fit thingy. It is way more fun than other form of exercise I guess.

Oh yeah, here is something random: Our dogs literally ate our cell phone. They are tiny wiener dogs, so you wouldn't suppose they could do so much damage but they did! James wanted me to post this. Here is exhibit A:

Oh yeah, and here are some random pictures that I love.

Blind kid at bat! Averi was a witch for Halloween, isn't she so cute?!!

Christian catching some sweet air jumping in the yard.

My new diet plan: tie food to strings and don't use hands...do you think it will work? Just kidding!!!

Our best buddies Alyson and her hubby Christian "Trunk-r-Treating" with us

Me and my girls on "Witches Night Out"

See ya, I resolutioned to blog more, so I will be back again!

Thankfulness's

2009-11-13T07:53:00.000-08:00

As I stated on my Face Book today, I am thankful for school. I get to send my kids there all day and they get smarter while I have a lot of freedom. I have been waiting for this all of my life. I love my kids sooo much, but I love them even more when I get a little "mommy time".

Today they are home from school. The only thing that is keeping me sane so far is the fact that I bought a Dyson vacuum last night and they are very fascinated by it for some reason. It's like a visitor from another planet. They keep hovering around it and pushing buttons to see what happens. I am going to use this to my advantage and bribe them to clean and let them try out the new contraption. Oh the mom tricks I can pull out of my sleeves! I am a genius!

This year is flying by so fast. I want to freeze time. But only if is during the school year in the Fall, not summer when my kids are home fighting all day. They are at such fun ages right now. I told them both a couple of weeks ago that I am their best friend and they have to tell their best friend who they have crushes on. It didn't work! I then tried to bribe them with $5.00 if they told me, and that didn't work either. I am doing something wrong. I will have to come up with a sneakier plan! I need to know these things dang it!

"Social Studies" vs. Science

2009-11-12T07:49:00.001-08:00

Hellllllooooo! I have to share a funny story about my little Taylor Jo. I went to parent teacher conferences this week, and my kids are usually straight A students. This is very odd to me because I think I was a straight C student. I remember getting a few A's here and there. I think I was more interested in the "social" part of school than the learning part...big surprise huh? Well, Taylor has inherited my "gift of gab" as James calls it. She is a social butterfly...but she is also smart. I love that my kids have the drive to be good in school. Maybe it's because I tell them that they will have to get a $2.00/hr. job compared to a $50.00/hr job if they don't get good grades. They are very motivated by money, is that bad?

Well, I got to Taylor's teacher and she showed me her report card and it had a D- on it!!!! I almost passed out! Her teacher told me that it wasn't a big deal, and it was only because she didn't hand in a few assignments (did I mention that Taylor also inherited my airheadedness?). Being the resourceful mother I am, I decided to use this as a teaching moment. I got home and I gave them their report cards, Christian was all A's, and Taylor went down the list of all A's until she got the D- in Science. She freaked out and said "I got a D- and it wasn't even in talking, it was in Science!". I was cracking up because she expected to get a bad grade for talking, but never for school work.

I acted really serious and told her why. She said that she would never forget to turn her homework again and she was so sad/mad. It worked!!! I don't think I can do anything about the talking, but I can do something about their grades.

Then I thought to myself, I might of got bad grades in Science, but I got good at socializing. I am satisfied with that because I have to use my socializing abilities EVERY day. It is a good skill to have because we all know how awkward it is to try to talk to somebody with no social skills.

So..GO SOCIALIZE!!!

Crusin'

2009-09-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

It is sad to see summer come to an end! We had a crazy summer with me getting hernia surgery, James was crazy busy with HUGE projects, and just plain old life. To end our summer we decided to go on a cruise with one of my best friends Alyson and her husband Christian. Thanks to my mom and my sister for helping us out with kids and dogs we got to take a MUCH NEEDED BREAK!

HERE ARE A FEW HIGHLIGHTS:

FIRST DAY: LEAVING MIAMI

GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND:

We decided to catch a taxi to a place called Cemetery Beach (because it is by the cemetery, where we saw grave diggers/robbers? and I swore I saw them throw a skull while they were digging-thus no pictures of them) and Snorkel. It was so fun! We love snorkeling. We were along a stretch of beach called the 7 mile beach. On the way back we decided to walk about 6 miles of the 7 miles along the beach (in the rain). It was fun and tiring. We almost missed our boat we had to chase down a taxi to take us back to port. The boats hold 3400 people, they won't wait for 4! Whew... Oh yeah ...the water really does look like blue jello! IT IS SOOOO COOL!!!!!!

James, Alyson and Christian and blue jello water

Cemetery:

THE BEACH:

Our secluded spot on Cemetery Beach, it was so peaceful. We made friends with a beach dog, he was so cute!

SNORKELING: So much fun and we didn't get eaten by sharks like I envisioned ahead of time-thank goodness!

James and I

Alyson:

Tired and sunburned at the end of the day-this is how every night was!

Roatann Island Honduras:
Here we decided to all go have a dolphin "encounter" in my mind encounter meant playing and swimming, in reality it was very controlled. I guess 300 lb. fish can be dangerous or something?! They were cute and it was tons of fun! They made all of their sounds with their blowholes, Averi would have loved it because she had a blowhole from her trachea hole that she made sounds with when she was a baby! She also clicked a lot. I think she was a dolphin in a previous life or something.

Aerial view of the resort with dolphins.

Beach cabins we plan on vacationing to someday!

Mom and baby dolphin....soooo cute!

I was getting sick of posing for pictures!

Tabyana Beach in Roatann, my VERY FAVORITE! There was a Reggae band playing, perfect water with perfect snorkeling. We love it there! We want to move there!

Snorkeling in Roatann: it was so much better than the Caymans. The water was clear, and there were so many more fish. No sharks either!

So romantic!

This is how I looked the whole time...clueless!

BELIZE: It was a beautiful country, but very poor. It was a huge eye opener for me to see that people actually do live in tin huts. It was also VERY HOT!!! I have never sweat so much in my entire life. James said it was a lot like Costa Rica (where he served his mission) I don't know if I could tolerate that for too long! We visited some Myan ruins called Altun Ha and then we went by boat down the river Wallace and got to see the jungle first hand. We saw huge iguanas and some howler monkeys, some of the local wildlife. VERY FUN!

James took these sunrise pictures from the ship in Belize while he was jogging (yes...jogging). He thought it would be fun to jog on board the ship, and I thought it would be fun to sleep while he jogged on the ship! We both enjoyed our time!

We climbed to the top of the Temple of the Sun God.

Good deal on perscription drugs without a prescription! We were dummies and didn't buy any though! I am kickin' myself now!

Mango tree! With ripe mangos.

River Wallace at the end we saw Manatee and dolphin swimming in the ocean-very cool!

River trip. We saw HUGE igunas, this one was as big as James! I'm glad we were in the boat!

Banana tree-brought back lots of mission memories for James from Costa Rica.

This is a common house style that everyone lived in. Usually they were up on stilts though to keep the critters out and let breeze in. IT WAS SO HOT!

COZUMEL MEXICO:
The last day to go on shore and I think we progressively got dumber each day as you can tell by our pictures! What happens in Mexico...

This is ginger-ale!

The beach was crowded with lots of drunk people! We got a good people watching show out of it!

This picture was funny because I took it and then realized that the guy in the background was wearing his hat "wrong". It was so funny at the time!

Playa Mia beach in Mexico--VERY, VERY HOT!!! I got sunburned just taking this picture of my legs!

OUR FAVORITE SHIP MOMENTS:

Our ship.

Cute little creations that our housekeeper made out of our towells. Funny huh?

Nightly dining. Every night they had a show put on by our wait staff. They would get up and dance on tables and crack us up! Alyson had them sing Happy Birthday to Christian (his b-day was in Aug.) because when the Indionesian waiters sang it reminded us of the scene on Christmas Story when the Chinese guys are singing Christmas Carols at the restraunt! We would laugh our heads off!

The theatre where the shows were and where I found my Knight in Shining Armour!

We had the best time! I am so glad that Alyson invited us to go with them, they are the coolest! We loved dancing, sushi, napping, shows, and eating all week! What a great experience!
We were worn out, and missed our kids though. It is always good to come home after a great vacation. We got the travel bug for sure!

This is a picture we got on one of our formal nights!

Dear Blog, I am sorry I ignore you...

2009-08-20T20:56:00.000-07:00

If my blog was a person, it would be so offended by how much I ignore it!!!! We have had one crazy summer. Between James' hectic schedule at work and my surgery (more details to come) it has flown by. I have so many fun things I could have written on my blog, especially for my journaling, but I will have to condense them into a boring summary.

I will post pictures and highlights soon and perhaps share some of my funny dreams that I have been having while taking Ambien...crazy! I can't go without sharing my crazy dreams with everyone. My dad and James think I'm crazy, but my Mom and my sister share this weird trait with me, it's genetic.

Stay tuned for pictures and updates!

Take a ride on the "Potty Train"

2009-06-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

Potty training has begun!!!! ARRGGG! Averi isn't liking the changes, she has been crying on and off at the drop of a hat like I do when I have PMS!

The main problem I have with this is that Averi thinks the toilet is a performance stage. Also, she is such a creature of habit that anything I do or say while she is on the toilet will forever become part of her permanent routine, so I have to watch what I do. For example, I let her talk into a cup one time, and now she has to do it every time. It makes a cool echo, so she likes to make up stories or pretend like it is a overhead intercom in on of the many stores we go to. She copies and has all of the different store messages memorized and imitates them well. She also makes up rhymes and stories that I have no clue what she is saying, it is entertaining!

My kids are at a science/math camp for 6 hrs. each day last week, so I thought this would be a perfect time for the "potty training". Another problem...she thinks a potty training is a "potty train" choo choo! I will need to reword that! Anyway, wish me luck! Send me some Xanax if you have any to spare, I really need it!!!!

I have the cutest video of her making up rhymes on the toilet, but I can't get it to load, must be too big! I will try again later.

HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY TO JAMES!!!

2009-06-10T07:36:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday to my sweet husband!!! Poor James has had soooo much stress at work this past couple of months. He is in charge of a hospital picnic tomorrow (about 3000 people will be there), and on top of that he has HUGE projects he has to complete for the summer. He won't let me buy him anything for his birthday, we are trying to make it special, but it's not working out! He is turning 35 today!

We love him so much! He is the best husband and dad anyone could ever ask for!

Hugs Sand Kisses!

2009-06-07T13:49:00.000-07:00

Great weekend with the kids. We have had a lazy, rainy weekend. James is so great! He decided to build the kids a sandbox for the back yard. He is so crafty and handy. He did an awesome job. I took some cute pictures of the kids watching him, it was crackin' me up! I will post the finished product when we are all done!

I'm baaaaack.... with a vengeance!!!!

2009-06-01T17:17:00.001-07:00

Did you know that without a camera it was physically impossible for me to blog?!? My kiddos broke my old camera one day and it was like someone cut of my fingers and I couldn't type anymore! I am such a visual person...I have to have visual aids for everything-including my life I guess!

Well...hallelujah I have a new camera! Now I can begin my blog life again!

Where do I start? WE ADOPTED TWINS!!! Not people twins, "hot dog" twins! Our kids have been begging us forever to let them have puppies and the time was right, so we took the plunge!
We named them Bandit and Scout. They came with the names Chubs and Elliot which I loved, but the kids wanted to be in control of EVERYTHING! They are both little boys, and they are so cute. We got them from Averi's aide from school (who is the most awesome person). She breeds them to have this special color like a Weimaraner dog.

Needless to say...we are in love with them. I feel like a new mommy. My kids hold them ALL DAY LONG. It has been a nice transition to summer break, that's for sure! My kids aren't whining to me that they are bored all day long, and they are cleaning up the POOP! So far, so good. We'll see what happens as the summer progresses.

Taylor keeps saying "I know it's real because I keep pinching myself and I am not waking up from a dream". It cracks me up! She loves animals SOOOOO much. They keep hugging me and telling me they love me. Averi even loves them. She loves wind chimes a little more, but she calls the puppies by name and pets them.

Averi with Grandma Empey's wind chimes!
and wanting to hold Bandit.

AWWWW! PUPPY LOVE!

Our first road trip to the Tetons.

This is the famous "MISS CHRIS" (Averi's aid) who we adore! These are the parents of
Scout and Bandit.

Snow, snot, and September...that's what dreams are made of!

2009-04-16T08:43:00.000-07:00

I would love to post Easter egg hunt pics., but my kids broke my camera! Ugg! We got to go to a ward hunt, and then we took Averi to a "beeping" egg hunt! It was so fun for her. All of my kiddos had a great time. James and I were interviewed on the news, which is my nightmare! I will post James' video, they didn't have one of me to post (yahoo).

We have had the sick bug visiting and it won't leave! Averi has a sinus infection and she has been home all week! She is so sweet, but she is so bored here-we drive each other crazy! I need the other kids to distract her. I can't get anything done with her home! I do like the one-on-one time though. She is such a funny kid.

I have to officially post that I am not too fond of Mother Nature right now! I have spring fever soooo bad! I think I get that SADD thing from the winter and no sunshine. I just want to get out and take my kids for bike rides and walks, but it keeps snowing! What the heck?!? I think I will need to up my prozac doses soon!

Did I mention that James and I are going on a Caribbean cruise? Well...I will be talking about it all the way until September. I have that long to look forward to beaches and swimming with dolphins. The good thing is that I have that long to loose weight. I hate having to lose weight! My body is my enemy sometimes. My mouth has compulsive behavior patterns that force me to eat sweets! I try to stop it, but I can't! So...needless to say, I am going to be cranky until September.

Here is the link to watch James on the news. It won't let me click on it, you have to paste and copy it into the search thingy. Sorry!

http://www.kidk.com/news/local/42856027.html

Spring whine fest 2009

2009-04-09T14:23:00.001-07:00

Warning!!! This is going to be a WHINY blog post!

I NEED AN ASSISTANT!!! You know like those high power worker people who have a little helper that does all of the details for them? I need one of those! I am tired and overwhelmed by the list of things I have to do to help little Averi! Of course I would do anything for any of my kids, but Averi's list is just A LOT harder! These are my problems:

1) I need to potty train her.

2) I need to teach her how to chew food! She still only eats baby food!

3) I need to make her some braille books.

4) I need to figure out where she is going to go to kindergarten.

Just one of these tasks is too much for me! I am not competent to do these things! Averi is obsessed with flushing the toilet, so potty training is almost impossible! She refuses to eat real food and barfs when I try to make her!

I don't remember my braille very good, so it will take me 10 times longer to make braille books! And...last but not least KINDERGARTEN!!! I have to send her to ANOTHER year of kindergarten because of her social issues!

This all really needs to be done by the end of the summer! How does one accomplish such tasks and still clean the house, do laundry, pay bills, chauffeur kids around, and make meals? I am baffled! I wasn't born with the mechanism to organize and carry out plans! Ugh!

Well, sorry for the whining! I mostly want to journal this so I can look back and remember what made me loose my sanity!

If anyone knows how to potty train or teach a blind kid how to chew...please feel free to give me some pointers!

Spring Break= more Prozac!

2009-04-03T16:40:00.000-07:00

Spring break is over-yahoo! Not that I don't love my kids, because I adore them...however, they drove me crazy! It snowed the whole time, so they couldn't go outside. Instead they stayed inside all cooped up and fighting! There were lots of groundings, yelling matches, chore assignments, and near beatings! We were all sick to boot! To make matters worse I am trying to diet and I am not a nice hungry mom! The good news is...we all survived it!

Since I have been lazy about blogging, I have missed posting Christian's 10th birthday! He had such a good time. He is our sweet boy! We love him! We had a birthday party at Blast Off. I can't believe I am the mother of a 10 year old. It is crazy! Time flies fast! He also had his Pinewood Derby which was cute he won the best headlights award. I missed it because Averi wasn't feeling well. James did such a good job at helping Christian make his car, it was sweet. He is such a good dad! Christian is such a good Son!

Last weekend we went bowling in Blackfoot for my niece Emily's birthday. It was so fun! Emily is so cute, she turned 3. She wanted Taylor to spend the night for her birthday, so they had a slumber party. Jessie and Ben are awesome to let her do that. Christian spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa E.'s house. We stayed home with Averi, and it was a very peaceful night, I did miss the little stinkers though!

I need to update this blog more often so I can actually remember the funny life we lead! My favorite highlights were:

1) Christian- "Isn't it weird that the Earth is just floating in space?"
Taylor-"no it isn't"
Me-"where do you think the Earth is than?"
Taylor- "I thought it was on the ground."
Me and Christian-"you thought the Earth is sitting on a ground?"
Taylor-"yeah"
Me-"what ground?"
Taylor- "I don't know! Space ground?"
-lots of laughter-

2) I recently sat through a sacrament meeting that was interesting to say the least! To make a long story short the following phrases are now part of the Iona 6th Ward sacrament meeting lexicon:

"girls would walk by and grab my brothers genitals while he was working out"
"sexual harassment"
"grab girls butts"

Anyway, that's all I have! Just make a mental note not to mention the above phrases in church please! Just a little tip!

PEACE OUT!

No news is good news!

2009-03-08T14:52:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting my blog sooooo bad! I plan to print this out as a book for my family as kind of a yearly journal, and I am slacking!!! We have been very busy and I have been very lazy! I don't even know where to start.

*My wrist is getting better, I forgot to take pics. of the ugly bruises, but thank goodness they are gone now. Snowboarding season is over, so I have a break from injuries. Christian and Taylor are getting so good at snowboarding, I am so proud of them. James of course was already so good, but I am still proud of him for teaching all of us! What a guy!

*We have had a lot of fun things going on. I found one of my long lost friend Becky (who lives 5 mins. from me). I am so excited to reconnect with her! She is so awesome, our kids are pretty much the same age too, so we can all have fun together.

*We went to South Jordan Utah for a family temple session last week and we had about 26 people from James' Dad's side of the family attend. It was really cool to go with that many people we know. We had a lot of fun, and the kids got to play with their cousins.

*James and I went to some MMA fights with some of our friends the other night, it was really fun. We really like watching people beat the crap out of each other! I don't know why! We are sort of demented that way! We don't really fit into that crowd, but we don't care! I especially love the "ring girls" who wear next to no clothing (sorry no pictures of that)! I wanted one of them to fall so bad! They strut around in high heels, and I was ready with my camera to get the fall shot, but it didn't happen dang it!

* I went to the doctor a couple of weeks ago and he told me I was too fat and there is something wrong with my Thyroid! So...I went on a big shopping spree for "fat clothes", bought some chocolate, and I dyed my hair reddish brown. I have a new attitude now! (I do have to give myself these injections for my insulin problems! I hate it! This does not make me happy.) So, I guess I have to lose weight now dang it!

Our kiddos have been sick with the croup! YUCK! I have had them home for a few days, and I am ready for my freedom! Sorry this is boring, but our life is semi-boring.

I've fallen and I can't get up!

2009-02-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

I am handicapped right now! I am also high on pain meds. too! YIKES! I totally fell getting onto the ski lift last Friday and almost broke my wrist. I went to the E.R. and they said it wasn't broken! Thank goodness! I couldn't believe that something so painful didn't break my whole arm off! I am not too bad at snowboarding, but the ski lift and I do not get along! What's a girl to do?

Unfortunately it was my right wrist which I use most. I am finding that I actually need both hands to do most daily tasks. What the heck?!? I totally didn't pay attention to that fact before. What am I even talking about? I don't even know what I am saying right now. I need to go to bed now. Don't worry, I am not hooked on these pills, I hate them! They make me so irritated, but it is good to sleep without the pain!

I will post some nice bruise pictures later. This blog is starting to become my hall of shame now! WOW! I am done for this season though. I am totally sacrificing my body to learn this stuff for James and the kids! They can't say I never tried!

Adorable!

2009-02-02T19:01:00.000-08:00

Here are the cutest hats my mom made my girls-in one night! I could only get Taylor to pose! They are so cute, and my mom is soooo talented! Thanks mom! We love you!

Don't look at me-I'm hideous!

2009-02-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

I have been in hiding because I have a HUGE black eye from snowboarding on Friday. I decided to learn how to snowboard with James and the kids. James has been snowboarding since he was in high school, and the kids are learning with their school, so I thought it would be a good idea to learn. I am doing o.k. so far, but Christian and I kind of got our butts kicked by the ski lift and we ended up in a nasty wreck. I of course didn't have a helmet on that night so I got nailed in the temple with the side of Christian's snowboard. Then when we got to the bottom of the hill my hand got totally cut from my bindings-it was NOT my night! I almost passed out from all of the blood! I am turning into a wimp! I wish I would have gotten a video to share, that would have been so funny!

Overall I think it is sort of fun, and I know I will like it the more I go. I am going with the kids 2 more times this month. Let's hope I live through it!

Soooo Cute!

2009-01-12T18:41:00.000-08:00

I just thought I would show off my talented kids! Some of the music on Taylor's and Averi's videos are very loud-beware! Pause my music player first too! I am so proud.

Here is Averi's impromptu concert!

This is Christian's great imagination at work. He made a Star Wars movie.

Here is Taylor's cheer performance. She loves it, and does so good too!

I love them!

HELP! I HAVE NYRS/ISMS!

2009-01-06T12:41:00.000-08:00

I've got NYRS! This stands for New Years Resolution Syndrome! Yes, it is real because I have it and if it wasn't real how could I have it? I don't have an acute (short period of time) case, I have a chronic (everlasting) case of it. Since every day can't be Jan. 1 st, it turns itself into "I'll start Monday syndrome" throughout the year. Now this isn't only pertaining to the fact that I can't fit into my clothing, but also paying bills, reading my scriptures, having Family Night, doing a budget, cleaning my house, and a whole list of better mothering skills! AHHHH! I get agitated just typing about it!

So, I was watching Oprah (I love her) today while I was eating lunch, and I had an "A-Ha Moment" (as Oprah would say)! She was talking about how she fell off the wagon of being healthy and how she gained 40 lbs. this last year. Well, I totally relate to her because I did the same thing, but not quite 40 lbs. thank goodness! She was talking about the reason people eat and why they gain weight and that is psychological. I always hear this, but I can never think of a reason I overeat except for the fact that I love food! She decided that it was because she wasn't "loving herself" enough. What she meant by that was that she was giving and giving to everyone else and she was running her "well" dry so she ate to feel calm and happy. I decided that THIS IS WHY I OVEREAT TOO! Being a mom is such hard work and we don't give ourselves enough attention and replenish our "wells" and then we try to find calmness and balance somehow, and I eat for happiness-I love to sit down with my yummy food at night when it is quiet and relish the moment! This is my problem! I am an emotional eater, I eat for EVERY emotion, happy, sad, stressed, bored whatever- it is calming and relaxing to me! I need to find something besides food to feel calm and relaxed every day!

So, my New Years Resolution was to lose all of the weight I gained back this year, but not anymore! My new Resolution is to find BALANCE and REPLENISH MY "WELL" OFTEN! I think if I love who I am and like me for me, I will care more about being healthy which will make me want to take care of the body that Heavenly Father gave me. By doing these things, I know my body will find it's healthy/happy weight and I will be more energized and available to do the things to cure my NYRS or ISMS (I'll start Monday syndrome). I will not be too tired emotionally or physically to plan Family Night, or to do my Mom Jobs. I will enjoy cooking because it will be healthy food that fuels my body and makes my family healthier.

So...if any of you have good ideas on how you take time to replenish your "well" please share! I need to have some ideas! I need some ideas on balancing my life too. If I write this stuff for everyone to see, I will be more inclined to do it.

May we all find a way to replenish our "wells" weekly!

Freakin' Fabulous!

2009-01-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

O.K., so we haven't really done much of anything during this break, so my title is a little misleading. However, I do think that sitting around eating and watching movies with the family is fabulous. We all got some kind of virus so we have been worn out, so this has suited us all fine. We are like the virus magnet family. You would think that we would have immune systems of steel by now!

I think that sitting around and eating has helped me work towards making my "New Years Resolution" if you know what I mean! YIKES!!!!

We all had a wonderful Christmas. The kids were up until 3 a.m. Christmas Eve and almost caught Santa several times. I am sure that Santa was very worn out from trying to hide from them! It was too much excitement! We all got very nice gifts from everyone, and best of all we got to spend it with some of the family! That is our favorite part! Our kids had so much fun with all of their new toys, and James and I had fun napping in front of our new fireplace.

We wish everyone a Wonderful 2009!

So...we weren't too good at pictures this year, but here are a couple!

2008-12-23T11:46:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

'Tis the season to be crazy- fa la la la la la la la la! Was that enough la's? I am lovin' this blog thing because it gives me an excuse to not send the cards that I didn't buy! I don't know if you have noticed, but I never send out cards! It's just not my thing! The truth is that I am too unorganized! So...here is my first card in years, blog style!

So, let's see, where do I start?

James still has his job. This seems to be the great accomplishment of the year! He is still working as the pharmacy manager at the hospital here. Our family is blessed to have such a good hard worker to support our family! We love and appreciate him so much! He is still the secretary of E.Q. at church which keeps him very busy too. He still play soccer when he can, and we are all looking forward to some winter sports soon. James helps me out so much! And last but not least, he is so dang cute and funny! I am constantly entertained by him.

I still have my job! As long as I have kids to take care of and clean up after, my job is pretty secure! I stay very busy herding my kids around from place to place. Since I am slightly unorganized, I tend to create extra unnecessary drama for myself on a daily basis. I love my job as a Mommy and Wife. I get to learn so many new things every day! I am actually not doing anything new to brag about at the moment. I am trying to simplify my life. I do have to brag about our basement finishing skills though. We worked so hard and we have a whole new outlook on life now.

Christian is 9 and in 4Th grade now. Christian is getting straight A's in school! He loves sports, music, reading and anything Star Wars. He is very helpful at home, and is starting to babysit for us sometimes. He is a very kind and generous boy who is very sensitive. He is also very curious, he is always asking us questions about everything.

Taylor Jo is 8 and in 2ND grade this year. She is also getting straight A's in school! She is in a Gifted and Talented program to help keep her from being bored in school. Taylor loves anything about animals! She also loves cheer leading, music, reading and socializing. She is our social butterfly! She is always happy and very generous! She is very artistic and likes to create things. She got baptized in October which was really fun for her and her dad.

Averi is in Kindergarten now. She is loving being in school every day. As always her favorite part of school is riding the bus. This year she has really gained a lot of skills. She knows her phone number, and address. She loves to spell and she really likes to have us quiz her on words and counting. She can count to 100 by 1's, 5's, and 10's. She of course loves the piano! She is still a little behind on some of her social and age appropriate stuff, but we are working on it. She is of course as sweet as ever!

We are just fat and happy here in our neck of the woods! We are actually looking forward to the new year because church starts at 11:00 instead of 9:00! We are excited to set new goals and hope that each new year brings us more success than the last!

We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Here is a small glimpse of our daily life! (pause the music player)

TIMING IS EVERYTHING!!!!

2008-12-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

So...here I go whining again! WHAT'S NEW?!? (before you read this I feel I need to mention that I just took a Lortab for my violent sore throat before writing this! Read at your own risk!)

There's nothing like having your fat rolls plastered on national television to help with the getting "healthy (aka. skinny)" motivation! I guess I know what my "resolution" will be in '09! The timing of filming Mystery Diagnosis show was perfect! I got to show off the 25 lbs. I had found that had been lost in the 12 months prior to us filming that show! Thank goodness I found them, my belly, butt and chin were feeling naked! The good news is that I think I am enjoying being a happy fat person more than I was enjoying being a "thinner mean, evil, starving, cranky woman"! I don't know if it's worth the humiliation though. I doubt that James enjoys the permanent PMS symptoms I experience when I am starving myself either-it's a "catch 22"! I always have the back up plan of eating milkshakes every meal until I'm eligible for lap band- that could be fun! I would be able to have my cake and eat it too-if you know what I mean-(wink wink)! JUST KIDDING! With my luck I would die of a sugar coma before I could get the lap band and I would be too embarrassed to attend my own funeral-how mortifying! NOT A GOOD PLAN!

Our T.V. debut tonight was overall pretty good! I was annoyed about some of the info. they changed and the weird stuff they made us say. They made me look like a cold hearted snake! Worst of all they plastered my hair to my forehead so I didn't have flyaways on film. COME ON PEOPLE! I sat in a directors chair for 6 HOURS and I could have really used a makeup person and a xanax, not a hairspray person! What ever happened to airbrushing?

HOWEVER...

I am so blessed to have spent that time with my family and it is wonderful that Averi's story is out there for other people to learn from! I thinkmy family did a great job, and I am so grateful for the time that everyone took to help with the show! I love seeing the video, and it is great family history stuff. Thanks a million to everyone again! We love ya! When I am dying, I won't remember my fat rolls, but I will cherish every second spent with my family. I AM TRULY BLESSED!

Sorry about whining! Dang it! It just comes SO natural! Does anyone want to join a "biggest loser" club with me? I promise I won't make you wear spandex and put your fat rolls on national television!

What did I do to deserve this?

2008-12-03T22:01:00.000-08:00

I HAVE TO BLOG THIS!!!!!

Here is my day today:

1) Wake up feeling like a semi-truck hit me again!

2) Followed James to take the Armada to the "shop" cuz it's not working right.

3) Drove James to work in our Intrepid and started to drive home.

4) Put the window lock on because Averi was rolling down the window and it was too cold.

5) Got Averi ready for school and was excited to rest a little cuz I'm sick!!!!!

6) Drove Averi to the end of our road to catch her bus (it was too cold to walk,cuz I was sick) !

7) Got out of the car to get Averi out to catch her bus shut my door and hear a click!

8) Discovered that the click was the EVIL Intrepid that loves to lock itself when you get out of it for no reason! This has happened to me twice this month!

9) Freaked out because Averi and the keys were locked in!

10) Called James to tell him to bring home the keys and help me-then he told me he had no car to drive home in...DUH!!!

11) Felt like my head was going to explode while I was banging it on the car window!

12) Thought "OH-I will just have Averi roll down the window from the inside" then thought "Oh s***! I locked that too!"

12) Had to wait for James to borrow a car and come home, then I had to drive Averi to school looking like "death warmed over" (more like road kill warmed over)!

13) Mad as heck came home and decided to have raisin bran for lunch and inhaled a raisin! I started choking to death with my Mom and Sister on the phone. Luckily I saved myself somehow, but unfortunately peed my pants while I was choking (not that you want to know that part, but it really added to the story-this happens to women who have had babies when they sneeze, puke, cough, jump or almost choke to death, it's not my fault).

So...tomorrow should be better right!?! Yeah, we'll see!

I'm Baaaaa-aaaaack!

2008-12-01T20:35:00.000-08:00

Hallefreakin'lujah! Is that disrespectful? Probably huh? Sorry! But it is really how I feel inside right now! I have been running a fever all night, so if I am incoherent, it is because I am incoherent! Anyway, I said the "aforementioned" Hallelujah because our basement is finally finished (well...mostly)! It is a dream come true!

We have had such a busy and quite crappy month actually. We have all been sick (and it feels like I am sick AGAIN), I have had kids home for 2 weeks while trying to finish up our basement before Thanksgiving (which I actually enjoyed some one-on-one time with them). We had been working until all hours of the mornings painting, tiling, and whatevering we started neglected our kids REALLY BAD! Taylor said to me one day, "mom, we don't even talk to you any more" sad huh? So...now we are veggin' out and being lazy with the kids enjoying our new house.

I need to send a "shout out" to our contractor James who did a fantastic job! He is really talented. And...to my mom and dad who helped us a ton! We are so grateful for all of the help we had. I am too tired to whine about all of the crud we encountered, but overall, everything came together surprisingly well. We are now experts at laying tile, chair railing, painting, hanging cabinets, and caulking and spackling. Well...maybe not experts, but we can do it and make it look alright I guess.

So...here are the big pictures: TA-DA....

Family room

bathroom (obviously)

Kids play room (I LOVE THIS)

reading room under the stairs in playroom

Jame's startling orange exercise room

My guestroom/office

Well, toodles for now! This won't be the last you hear from me!

P.S.-If you can read this you will find out that our Mystery Diagnosis show comes on Dec. 8th. We have previewed it, and just remember that the camera adds 30 lbs., and makes my hair look really weird. Funny huh?!

I am Amber, and I am a moron!

2008-10-28T15:51:00.000-07:00

Here are some updated pictures of my basement: I am so excited, we are finally in the home stretch.

BEFORE-ISH:

AFTER-ISH:

This is when I got locked in a bedroom in the basement. I decided to see how the door would close, and I accidentally locked myself in! I was laughing so hard I could hardly yell for help through the doorknob hole to get help from James who was upstairs. He was making fun of me while I was laughing so hard that I was crying. I am a moron! I am sure glad he was home though! How embarrassing!

This is some of my war scars-painting, and more painting! We have to paint the whole basement! I have killed many brain cells from the fumes. That is probably why I locked myself in the bedroom downstairs. I am for sure dumber now!

I have so much more to do on this blog, but I am tired and I can't go on any longer, maybe later!

May all of your brain cells last a long, long time!

What about Bob?

2008-10-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

I have a new construction worker named Bob here today. This is how I met him: I was in my office/laundry room looking up fireplace Mantles on my computer (I was home alone). My office is currently in my "mud room" which leads into my garage. All of a sudden I can hear my garage door closing...weird! Then I hear a man talking...even more weird! I thought "James must be home for some reason" so I got up and opened the door and this very odd guy was standing there talking to himself trying to open my garage door again. He said "I thought that was your doorbell". What?!? Bob is about 60-something, sort of looks like the wizard on The Wizard of Oz, smells like cigarettes and talks like Elmer Fudd. He seems like a nice enough guy though! Just funny.

My favorite part of it all was he pulled up in a huge blue Buick boat with a cloth top. I was thinking "is this your construction vehicle"? Then he unloaded it and left and came back with an old beat-up truck with a handicap sticker, and a guy with huge earrings in his ears. My life is sure full of interesting people lately! Only a week or so and then I will have our normal contractor back (who probably thinks I'm crazy!). I can hardly wait to post new pictures of my basement, I am sooooo happy!

Hola Amigos!!!!!

2008-10-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

We have been sooo busy! We had Taylor's baptism, birthday, and then we had to do lots of insulation in our basement. Taylor was so cute at her baptism, we are so proud of her. She knows more about the gospel than I ever did at her age! Thank you to Jessie, Ben and kids, Chris, Grandma's and Grandpa's Williams and Empey, Karen,Doug, Michelle, Grandma J., Amanda, Travis and family for coming on such a bad snowy night! We appreciate and love all of you! I promised her a birthday party this weekend so I had better get planning, I only have one day left, that's how I roll!

Finishing our basement pretty much is my dream come true, but putting up insulation was my worst nightmare! Whoever decided to make insulation out of fiberglass is a butt-head! I think I will get lung cancer and forever have itchy skin after that adventure. Why couldn't they have made it from something else, I don't have any other suggestions, but come on-was fiberglass their best option? What in the heck is fiberglass anyway? On a happy note... I have to brag about my superhero husband who carried 86 sheets of drywall down stairs by himself! He is so strong! I could NEVER have done that! He rocks! Our dry wallers are here today, and they should be done today too! Then taping and texture, and I will have real walls. We are doing the painting ourselves (yes, we are crazy) to save money! This is expensive! With the "great depression" and all, it had better be worth it!

(these are some "before" pictures)

My dry wallers are hispanic: Alfonso and Jose, they are very nice. Their Spanish is starting to rub off on me and Averi! I will be fluent soon. Averi wants to do all of her counting in Spanish, but I don't want to offend them, so I keep telling her to stop! She actually recognizes that they are speaking Spanish which is cool. Today Alfonso came in and I asked him what his name was and I didn't think he spoke English. I said my name is Am-ber like I was talking to a deaf person or little kid! As soon as I heard myself saying that I knew that I sounded like a moron! I can make the biggest fool of myself sometimes! He just looked at me with pitiful eyes and said O.K., smiled, and ran downstairs as fast as he could! How embarrassing!

And last but not least! You know you are too obsessed with politics when you turn on the t.v. to one of the candidates speaking and your blind daughter can recognize who it is by their voices! She says John McCain or Nobama (yes I taught her that-oops)! Maybe she can grow up to be the first blind woman president, I think she could do a better job than anyone who is running at the moment! OUCH! Yeah, I went there!

Adios Amigos!

P.S.-Why on October 11th did it snow 2 inches? This is some kind of cruel joke! We had from June 11th to October 11th without snow, that is so not long enough!

Oh yeah-I cut my hair off again! I feel so liberated!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR!!!!!

2008-10-09T13:04:00.000-07:00

Today is our sweet little Tato-Bugs birthday! She is 8 today! She is the one of the kindest, sweetest,snuggliest, silliest, smartest girls I know! We love her so much and we are so happy that she is in our family! We are so excited for her baptism too, she is such a good little girl and she has such a loving nature.

WARNING!!!!! Long political stuff!

2008-10-07T17:50:00.000-07:00

Alright, normally I wouldn't submit myself to this kind of scrutiny, but today I want to write about politics!

Many people don't know that I was a Political Science major in college. Yeah, yeah...I don't have a big important degree, but I learned a lot about Politics. This has been an interest of mine since I was in high school, so I have studied not only throughout my school years, but also just for the "fun of it". Of course you probably know I am conservative and that will probably lead you to guess who my vote will be for. Since there is "freedom of speech" in this country (even the ACLU would side with me here) I wanted to express some of my opinions here, not for arguments sake, but just because I can! So, please don't take this blog personal (unless I specifically mention your name)!

So...here goes!

The other day I was at the bank and an elderly man came and sat next to me in the waiting area. There happened to be a T.V. in the background with news on and for some reason this man felt compelled to talk to James and I about politics (a risky move on his part-very brave). He told us he was a World War II veteran and he knew a lot of guys that died and served trying to keep Socialism out of America. He then told us that the "Vets" would feel like they fought for nothing if our generation started forgetting what they fought for and if we elected somebody who may steer us towards a system that would be like Socialism. He went on to tell us that he felt Obama wanted to lead America into a Socialist system. We listened and agreed with some of the points he made, but I knew that I had to go home and do some research of my own. I wanted to know the truth about William Ayers, and I wanted to know exactly what ACORN was about how it was created, and how Obama was linked to them. I also wanted to see what things this Veteran thought Obama would do to lead us into Socialism. He reminded us as we were leaving to remember what he and so many other people fought for in past wars. This was one of those moments that make you really appreciate our freedom (this includes freedom from government with too much power) and all of those who have fought for me.

Now, I know that you can say I am looking at this from a bias point of view, so I challenge you to research this stuff on your own. I got my facts from both parties published information, but I will give my opinion based on my conservative point of view!

So, besides the health care, I wanted to know if Obama's plan had any other "Socialist" ideas or undertones. Among his proposed "investments" (meaning taxes) I found these promises:

* "Universal," "guaranteed" health care.
• "Free" college tuition.
• "Universal national service".
• "Universal 401(k)s" (in which the government would match contributions made by "low- and moderate-income families").
• "Free" job training (even for criminals).
• "Wage insurance".
• "Free" child care and "universal" preschool.
• More subsidized public housing.
• A fatter earned income tax credit for "working poor."
• And even a Global Poverty Act that amounts to a Marshall Plan for the Third World, first and foremost Africa.

O.K....so these things don't sound like bad things right? The idea of "Universal", "United", "FREE", these things appeal to me for sure! However, where does the government get the money to make this kind of promise? Taxes! Obama promises to only tax the 5% richest population in our country, so if you make over $250,000.00 or more you will get taxed. He does not exclude small businesses from that category, so if you have a local business and you bring in $250,000.00 a year (which is a pretty good business) you will pay more taxes. Wouldn't that mean that somewhere the businesses would have to cut costs in wages or hire less employees to pay higher taxes? I know the whole "Robin Hood" theory seems "fair", and it would be if ALL rich people were corrupt and dishonest! But let's face the facts, there are a lot of "rich" people and business owners who have worked their butts off to get what they have and why should they be punished because of that? If that was the standard set to judge the world by I guess it would be safe for me to assume that "poor" people are lazy. In my opinion, neither parties idea of who or who not to tax will be completely "fair"!!! The only way it could be is to have a "flat tax" that would be the same to everyone, or if we only applied a sales tax, so it would be applicable to everyone with the same standard! So...the argument of taxes and "rich and poor" bull doesn't even phase me! I pray that this is not the only reason you would vote for either candidate!

So I was thinking back on what I learned about Socialism, and what that meant. Socialism is a theory of social or government organizations advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. Karl Marx stated that socialism would be achieved through class struggle and that it could be the transitional stage between capitalism and communism. I found this quote about socialism from Hugo Chavez the President of Venezuela: "Those who want to go directly to hell they can follow capitalism. And those of us who want to build Heaven here on Earth, we will follow Socialism." If you don't know much about Hugo Chavez, he is a dictator that is ruining his country. He is an awful man, and I think that I don't want to share any of his beliefs.
I also learned about capitalism and a term "Laissez-faire" (this is basically French for let the market be) meaning that our economy and right to freedom in trade and production should have minimal intervention or taxation by the State (government) beyond what is necessary to protect our liberties, peace, security and property rights. So basically government should help uphold common laws and practices without taking over and determining our choices for us!

When our founding fathers came to America they were trying to escape the rule of a King who had too much control over what religion they joined, who could or couldn't own land, and they saw that it was a bad system that led to corruption and greed to gain more power. They proposed a central government with laws and rules to provide for separation of powers (which led to the 3 branches of government-legislative, executive and judicial). The jobs of these branches are different, but they should work together to make our country run smoothly and to assure that our rights are not ignored or taken away from us. This system of free market, minimal taxes, minimal regulations, and private ownership of property (no Lords or Serfs) would allow for a country to flourish. This set our government apart and made the United States such a powerful country in many aspects.

The idea of wealth distribution that Obama proposes seems to interfere with a "natural" system of choice and consequences. Yes, I think if there are big businesses that are corrupt and try to hide money through loop-holes and cheat that they should be punished! No, corruption and wealth are not only in the Republican party, they are people of every race and political party!

This new "bail out" plan is such a socialistic thing, and I think it was a terrible decision that our government rushed into under the guise of protecting our economy. If you think it was the Bush Administration's fault, you haven't studied the facts. This was a ball that has been rolling for years, and this administration just got stuck in it's path! If you have studied anything about the group A.C.O.R.N. (who got money in the bailout bill) you would know where the problem originated. Obama was smack dab in the middle of the whole mess, and the Clinton administration got the ball rolling! So today this A.C.O.R.N. group is into voter registration and we are going to find they are not a very honest group of people when we start seeing registration fraud. If you want to know more about how Obama was involved with them, go to this link: http://upholdamerica.org/acorn-facts-fiction. If you don't believe these statements, prove me wrong! Here are some of the news topics for the day if you don't believe me: KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states. Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. She said they were bogging down work Wednesday, the final day Missourians could register to vote. "I don't even know the entire scope of it because registrations are coming in so heavy," Davis said. "We have identified about 100 duplicates, and probably 280 addresses that don't exist, people who have driver's license numbers that won't verify or Social Security numbers that won't verify. Some have no address at all." FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the agency has been in contact with elections officials about potential voter fraud and plans to investigate.
"It's a matter we take very seriously," Patton said. "It is against the law to register someone to vote who does not fall within the parameters to vote, or to put someone on there falsely."
On Tuesday, authorities in Nevada seized records from ACORN after finding fraudulent registration forms that included the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.
In April, eight ACORN workers in St. Louis city and county pleaded guilty to federal election fraud for submitting false registration cards for the 2006 election. U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway said they submitted cards with false addresses and names, and forged signatures

By the way, since when does it not matter who you have supported and associated with in your past when it pertains to the leader of our country? I think all of the people out there who say William Ayers is not important are just in denial! Did you know that because of Obama's association with Ayers he would not be able to join some U.S. military services, but our country might elect him to be the Commander In Chief! Obama can deny his connections until he is blue in the face, but there are indisputable facts that connect him to some really questionable associations, and that makes me feel insecure about him. For example:

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY reported in July that a careful reading of Obama's first memoir, "Dreams From My Father," reveals that his childhood mentor up to age 18 — a man he cryptically refers to as "Frank" — was none other than the late communist Frank Marshall Davis, who fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress opened investigations into his "subversive," "un-American activities."
As Obama was preparing to head off to college, he sat at Davis' feet in his Waikiki bungalow for nightly bull sessions. Davis plied his impressionable guest with liberal doses of whiskey and advice, including: Never trust the white establishment.After college, where he palled around with Marxist professors and took in socialist conferences "for inspiration," Obama followed in Davis' footsteps, becoming a "community organizer" in Chicago.
His boss there was Gerald Kellman, whose identity Obama also tries to hide in his book. Turns out Kellman's a disciple of the late Saul "The Red" Alinsky, a hard-boiled Chicago socialist who wrote the "Rules for Radicals" and agitated for social revolution in America.

And this...

With his African identity sewn up, Obama returned to Chicago and fell under the spell of an Afrocentric pastor. It was a natural attraction. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright preaches a Marxist version of Christianity called "black liberation theology" and has supported the communists in Cuba, Nicaragua and elsewhere.
Obama joined Wright's militant church, pledging allegiance to a system of "black values" that demonizes white "middle classness" and other mainstream pursuits.
(Obama in his first book, published in 1995, calls such values "sensible." There's no mention of them in his new book.)
With the large church behind him, Obama decided to run for political office, where he could organize for "change" more effectively. "As an elected official," he said, "I could bring church and community leaders together easier than I could as a community organizer or lawyer."
Throughout his career, Obama has worked closely with a network of stone-cold socialists and full-blown communists striving for "economic justice."

Just for a minute think about the issues that make you vote for your candidate. If you cannot honestly think of any, I suggest you do some research. I'm not talking about the same old party bull crap that they sling at each other EVERY election year! I am talking about real concerns that our country has now. I am talking about the future impact on this country and it's morals. Within these issues think about how they really impact you. How does the war in Iraq affect you? How does health care affect you? Taxes? What are the things you want emphasized in our schools? What about the 2ND amendment (do you know what it is?), and last but not least the economy! Which slippery slopes do you want to avoid?

Now obviously I am not that impressed with Obama. I don't think he is a bad person in general, I just think he is kind of a follower and doesn't choose the best people to follow. On that note...that is what scares me about him getting elected as president. It is not that he is a Democrat, it is not that he is a different race, I don't agree with a lot of his voting record and choices he has made in office. I am sure he is nice, I don't know him so I can't say I don't like him personally, just his ideas.

So...there you have it, my little rant on politics! You may or may not agree with me, but at least research your facts and form a rock solid judgement rather than a opinion. (on a side note, I would love Sarah Palin in office because as her little handicapped son grows, you will see her get more and more involved in disability laws. This would benefit our sweet little Averi in many ways-so yeah, I like her. I also like her because she lived in Idaho, she is smart, tough, has great morals, and she is a "normal" person, not a stuffy women's rights activist!)
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!!

Let's smirk at my quirks!

2008-09-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

O.K., my cute cousin-in-law Katie tagged me. I am supposed to list 6 "quirks" about myself. I know I have thousands, so it is hard to narrow them down. Here goes:

1) I hate silence in a conversation. I will talk about anything to avoid silence. I HATE the awkward silence of just sitting there looking around. Besides, I love to talk, so this isn't that hard for me.

2) Messy microwaves! I can't handle them. I think the old food particles will fall into the new food I am trying to cook up. I freak out when I hear the exploding sound of food while it's cooking, it makes me so mad.

3) I sneeze when I pluck my eyebrows. I don't know why, but it is annoying. I think I'm allergic to grooming.

4) I love to belch really loud. Is that a "quirk"? Probably just bad manners! I can out belch a lot of people.

5) I am obsessed with a neat bed. James hates it when his sheet is tucked in and I can't stand a messy unorganized bed where the sheets wrap around and strangle me. I think it is an actual hazard to have loose sheets wrapped around me at night.

6) My favorite-my weird dreams. I have been blessed to have very vivid dreams and remember them in the morning. I love telling anyone who will listen about my dreams. I would love to go to a dream analyzer, they would have me put into the loony bin for sure!

BONUS QUIRK:

7) I had to add one more because I saw it on my sister's blog and I totally have this HUGE quirk too! LISTS- I have notebooks FULL of lists about everything imaginable! If I died, it would take a year to go through all of them. And...you would laugh hysterically and make fun of me the whole time you read them. They are really weird-like me!
I tag: Jessie, Dayna,Pam, Amanda, and Kjerstin

FINALLY!!!!!

2008-09-24T12:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of the rest of my happy basement life! I am so happy because today our contractor started our basement!

We hired a new guy we know and like a lot, and he is doing an excellent job! If any of you need a handyman, call me and I will give you his number He already has closets and walls and our tub drain dug up!

On a whiny note...I feel like my head may explode soon! I have some dang sinus infection, and it is making me very mad!

1+1 = ?????

2008-09-19T10:17:00.001-07:00

So...lately a few things have come to my attention. The first thing is that I am not very smart-well, at least at math! My first clue was having a hard time helping my kids with their math homework (how embarrassing)! I want to go back to nursing school, but as I was going over some entrance exam practice tests and got to the math, I felt like I was reading ancient Egyptian writing or something! I have definitely gotten dumber with age. I missed most of the practice questions, so it looks like I need to have Christian or Taylor tutor me a little.

The second thing I realized is that I am really a very weird and air headed person! This may not come as a surprise to most of you, but I have been in denial and now I see the light! While thinking of my kids and all of the weird ideas they have that are so funny, I remembered the weird things I thought when I was younger. I came up with a few and I will let you all be the judge:

1) When I was 7 I believed that I was a cat in a past life. I believed I could speak cat language and that my cat could understand me!

2) I believed that if I poked my belly button my legs would fall off, and that if I ate bread crust I would grow hair on my chest! (these are things my grandpa told me as a joke, and I bought into it)

3) I thought the smurfs lived in the forest behind our family cabin in Island Park and spent many hours trying to find them.

4) When I was younger I wanted to be either the President of the United States or a mortician. I am so jealous of Sarah Palin because I wanted to be a mom and President, but I know I couldn't handle that kind of stress! So now I would settle for being a nurse or a ghost hunter. Those are my dream jobs. Mortician is still on the list though, I think it is because I went to so many funerals as a child, I just figured I should get a job there! Who knows?!?

5) One of my secret desires is to be able to see dead people-only nice ones though. I would love to be able to send messages to people from the other side. I know it's weird, but it would be sooo cool!

6) The airhead stuff I don't have to explain. I make a fool of myself enough to have an experience with everyone I meet, so just remember the last time you talked to me and you will have your own example of my blondeness!

So...it is official! I am a weird blonde. What's new? I just had to confess these things that I have had bottled up for so long!

Here is a cute video of one of my brilliant children (thank goodness they got James' smart genes).

I guess agriculture ain't the only culture 'round these parts after all!!!!

2008-09-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we got culturized! I done went to a symphony with James. We sat on the grass, we ate steak, salmon and cheesecake from Outback Steakhouse (them was good vittles). We also got a treat of listenin' to the best darn fiddle player in the whole US of A! Now this is somethin' I could get used to! It was free to boot! Can I just tell y'all that free dates are the best dates! I forgot my camera again! Dang it all!

Oh my gosh! I almost forgot to mention our visit to the Eastern Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot Idaho! This a cultural experience that would turn even the strongest stomachs! Man...why do all of the freaks come out to the fair (what if I am a freak and I am in freak denial-this is a lot to think about)? We saw more back and neck hair on some people than we saw in the animal barns. However, the animals appeared to have better dental plans. I taught the kids my secret weapon of pretending that the "Carnies" are invisible so they don't get duped into the money wastin' games! I was so proud, they didn't even make eye contact once! I am an expert by the way, I grew up going to the fair dodging many freaks! Overall, I learned that I am a germophobe, and I have a touch of social anxiety! I do love the scary rides though, and I had nobody brave enough to go on them with me! Wimps! Maybe next year!

May your week be filled with culturization!

WHY ME??

2008-09-02T14:47:00.000-07:00

So...Some of you have heard this story, but I had to blog about it! On Sunday at church Averi was being very naughty , she was in an obnoxious mood. ( ie: In Sacrament meeting she decided that it would be really funny to "toot" as loud as possible several times and laugh about it-very loudly. I got some dirty looks too! She was also yelling out who she loved-Pam she said your name in there!)

Primary rolled around she had no teachers so I decided to spare the sub. and just sit with her! She did pretty good singing and sitting on my lap until the very end. Then came sharing time and scripture and prayer. Well, she was listening to all of the talking and getting every idea jumbled up in her head because she has no context to understand what they were saying. She was sitting on my lap facing me and first of all she kept "tooting" (a little problem she has) and I thought everyone around me was thinking I was over there "tooting". I kept getting out my hand sanitizer rubbing it on my hands and waving it around to dry to try to cover up the smell-I hoped it worked!

She then decided while I wasn't paying attention to use my breasts as punching bags. I told her to stop and she thought that was a funny game. She decided that it would be even funnier to lift my shirt up over my face, and she grabbed the bottom and just flipped it up out of nowhere! I had no time to defend my honor! There were only a few men in the room, so hopefully they didn't go home and vomit! I was wearing my girdle too, so all of my fat was pouring out of the top of it and everything! Then, she decided to copy what everyone was saying and she shouted "The Lord" and then she said "The Lord is pretend" and then "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is pretend". No, I do not teach her these things, she just got all of the the words jumbled up and said whatever she figured they were talking about.

I did the most logical thing and got up and ran out as fast as I could! So, now when I say I sluff church, you can understand why-to save my dignity! I am going to get kicked out sooner or later! What a little stinker-literally!

In this video she thinks she is talking to "Alvin and the Chipmunks". She has some really funny imaginary conversations, that's for sure. We love it!

BACK TO WORK!

2008-08-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

Have I actually gone this long without blogging? Wow! Well...obviously my vacation was so busy I couldn't blog, that is a good thing! Here is what we did for the rest of our vacation:

1) James and I went to Brian Regan show (he is a comedian) at Thanksgiving Point in Utah, it was funny(duh)! Then we stayed at the Little America hotel in a HUGE corner tower room! It was so much fun. Of course I forgot my camera (because that's my trademark) for the show, but I got great room pictures. Oh, and I did get my apples from the Rocky Mtn. Chocolate Factory! It was also our 12Th Anniversary! I just have to say that I love being married to James... he's the bomb!

2) It was my birthday! I turned thirty something and had such a fun time with my family! I got a Kitchen Aid! Yahoo! Now maybe I can try to cook something, or at least mix something to cook. I asked for a butler or chef but they were too expensive, so I got the tools to do it myself. I have wanted a Kitchen Aid for a long time, so it was really sweet of James and the kids to get me one! I love them!

3) Went river swimming to the St. Anthony Sand bar with Travis and Amanda (James' brother) and their kids. We all had tons of fun. What kind of Idaho hicks would we be if we didn't teach our kids to swim in the river or canal? This is no ordinary river swimming though, it has a water slide and everything. It's nothin' like the canal with a dead cow floating by that I grew up with! What a little gem! I thought it was cool. There were little fish swimming all around the kids feet, it was funny! The kids were all so cute!

4) We ate and ate and ate and ate and ate! We ate our body weight in ice cream alone. Needless to say I am on a strict diet and exercise regimen now! This makes me postal too, so watch out!

5) THE KIDS WENT BACK TO SCHOOL!!!! This has brought back a little peace and friendliness to our home! The good thing is they are at a free babysitter and they aren't getting any dumber (I hope)! They are happy too-well, sort of! Here are their reactions to returning to school! My reaction was cartwheels and fireworks!

Oh yeah, we watched the Olympics a lot too. I know rules to swimming and gymnastics scoring now, what the heck? I mostly liked it though, and not because of the guys in tights or speedos either!

Hasta La Vista Baby!

Day 2 vacation

2008-08-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from the camp out the other night. It went surprisingly well! James slept on the ground on an old mattress. He didn't want to get kicked all night. I opted out this time!

This may be too exciting for some people to handle: consider yourself warned!!!!

Day 2:
*cleaned the very messy house

*James went to work for 2 hrs.

*went to Perkins for dinner-saw my Grandma there

*went to Iona park for a little while

*drove to the top of the little hill by our house

*watched Averi jump on the trampoline

*ate ice cream

*watched Olympics

*went to bed

This is the "hill" that we conquered!

This is my favorite tree-it is next to our patio and it gives me great shade when I am sitting and watching the kids jump. I love it, and it loves me too!

Averi loves the trampoline!

VACATION SMACATION!

2008-08-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

James is taking off 2 weeks vacation. Some of you may be very jealous right now, but wait...we aren't actually going on vacation, we are staying home! To him this is good, he can be home instead of at work. To me it is better than being the only parent home all day, but it is still my workplace if ya know what I mean! Anyway, I want to keep everyone posted on what to do on "home vacations" just in case we inspire you to take one! YEAH RIGHT!

Oh yeah, I am already finished with Breaking Dawn, so now I have nothing to read! It was great though. I read it in 4 days.

DAY 1:

First, I was serenaded by Averi:

(don't forget to pause my tunes first)

This is one of the reasons we like her so much!

(I decided after viewing this video that I am going to make periodic posts about Averi's versions of songs. You know how sometimes you get song lyrics totally wrong and you laugh at what you thought it said? Well...this is how every song is to Averi- ie: Hankey Doodle. I crack up all of the time when I hear them.)

Next came our adventure to the zoo! It was so nice out, not too hot, but for some reason all of the animals were being lazy. It made me want a nap too. I was especially fascinated with the ostrich eggs because quite frankly; they are big eggs and they are cool-James made fun of me for it! The monkeys were so cute, I think they thought they are the observers and we are the animals at the zoo. We got a sno-cone on the way home-this made my day, I love sno-cones so much (especially with ice cream in them)! Not too bad of a day I guess!

Lazy animals! These pelicans were like statues.

We love to groom goats in our spare time! Have you ever noticed that goats have rectangle eye thingies? Weird! Cats eyes go vertical, goats go horizontal (I know that doesn't even probably make sense, but humor me!)! James says they are evil! I think they are like cute little puppies-that reak!!!!

I liked the ostrich eggs they are freakin' huge!

We got to bring home our own hatch lings!

Averi bonding with the little poo flinging monkey! They have a lot in common.

*Tonight might be back yard camping! Uh Oh! I can already tell how this is gonna go! I'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Ave!

2008-08-09T11:07:00.000-07:00

There is a cute slideshow of her at the bottom of this page!

Today is our sweet little miracle girl Averi's Birthday! I can't believe she is 6 years old already, it is crazy! We can't imagine our family without her. Since it is her birthday I thought I would let her do a few of her favorite naughty things like:

1) flush the toilet a few times
2) feel my neck while I am singing
3) watch the same episode of Gerald McBoing Boing over and over and over again
4) play the piano full volume without the headphones on
5) walk on her tip toes without reminding her not to do it
6) listen to only her songs in the car
7) jump on my bed and the couch
8) take as long of a bath as she wants and keep refilling it with warm water for her
9) lick the t.v. screen while she watches Gerald McBoing Boing
10) run around the house for a few minutes in the buff

FUN TIMES AT THE WILLIAMS RESIDENCE!

These are simple things that give her so much pleasure, it could be a lot worse! She is excited to turn 6. I will add pictures later, but since it's her birthday, I will show off her sweet piano skills (not one day of lessons either) with this little video ( I had to tell her to play regular happy birthday because she has many different Averi versions)! remember to push pause on the music player first

Honestly...what could be more fun than ice cream

cones and amusement parks for your 6th birthday?

THE BIRDS AND THE BEES! YIKES

2008-08-04T12:50:00.000-07:00

O.K., this will be short, I promise! I just have a funny story to share. Yesterday at church our Bishop talked about dangers of pornography and stuff similar to it for children. We have also been told to talk to our kids about the "birds and the bees" close to the age of baptism, so that they hear it from you and not on t.v. or from friends. Well, last night we did that with our kids (yes at the same time). It was so funny:

1) James drew pictures of everything, and I mean everything! What an artist!

2) Christian and Taylor kept looking at us like we were totally crazy!

3) When James explained to them how to make a baby I busted up laughing so hard! I couldn't help it!

4) We kept it very "matter of fact" and "medical", but it was still freaking me out that we were talking to our kids about that stuff. I kept covering my mouth from being in shock and from trying to not go into laughing seizures.

5) I feel like we corrupted our kids, but I want them to feel comfortable coming to us, and not learning things from the wrong people.

6) How else do you explain to kids what pornography is?

7) And lastly this was the only way to answer their question of why it was o.k. for us to see each other without our clothes on, because they thought we were being bad changing in the same room! I guess they got their questions answered! (and then some)

More incoherent food obsessive thoughts by Amber

2008-08-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry, this is longer than I meant it to be! I tend to ramble!
I am so excited because in about 2 weeks James and I are going to go to SLC for our 12TH ANNIVERSARY Woohoo! We are going to go stay in the Little America Tower hotel because the Grand America was 299.00/night-ouch! And...we are going to go see Brian Regan the comedian do a show. I am so excited (did I already say that?)! We are going to go to the Tuscany Restaurant, and then we are going to just relax for a couple of days. I need some time without Averi's toilet water hands on my mouth or neck making me repeat stuff 1000 times a day, and my ears need a break from the constant "that's not fair" contest!

Don't get me wrong! I love my little kiddos, but they are really making me nuts. And of course I will miss them a ton. (P.S.-special thanks to my mom for having the courage to take them on for a couple of days!) I have had the toilet terror summer from H-E-double hockey sticks, and I have not been able to get Averi past stage 3 baby foods yet. Oh well, I just hope she isn't 21 and still having to have her college room mates or her husband feed her by hand and then change her diaper! Ewww! That is wrong on so many levels huh? GROSS!

Speaking of nuts, I forgot to mention one of my most favorite parts of our trip that actually came to me in a dream while I was at the cabin. I think it was the fresh mountain air. I had a dream about the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory caramel apples. I have never been there but a friend of mine brought some back and shared them with me one day and I have wanted one ever since. I totally forgot about them until my very realistic dream. I woke up and I was so excited I told everyone at the cabin and I promised them I would bring back the treasures and share them. So if anyone has had them and has a favorite kind, let me know.

These are not regular caramel apples that you bite into and you are afraid your teeth will get stuck in and fall out, these are special! YUMMY FOR MY TUMMY!

However, they are not figure friendly, so it looks like I need to start exercising again! I took the summer off-smart huh? Now when I go back I will be a blubbering idiot crawling on the ground in agony trying to keep up. I think I am the oldest girl in my class, so that will be my excuse. Exercise Smexercise! I probably gained 5 lbs. just talking about caramel apples, that is the funny joke my body likes to play on me! I have lost and gained the same 10 lbs. at least 100 times. So I guess you could say I have lost 100 lbs.! Cool! That's not even counting the pregnancy weight I have gained and lost. I have probably set world records and don't even know it!

Oh well, it gives me something to obsess over. I can't even imagine waking up and thinking I don't have to lose 30 lbs., so now what I am going to think about! Who knows what new obsessions I would come up with! Scary!

Frollicking in the Forest!

2008-07-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Over the past 2 weekends we have decided to become one with nature! We had another sluffin' church moment the weekend before last and we went to Cave Falls (sort of in the Idaho/Wyoming side of Yellowstone Park). This time we didn't try to fool our bishop neighbor by driving around the block in our church clothes, we just stayed gone really late so he thought we went out of town or something-we are so tricky. We went with my parents and we went exploring high mountain lakes, tons of water falls and we had a fun pic-nic. I of course forgot my camera, so I have to go steal pictures from my mom's camera and post them soon.

These are the Mountains behind our house (Taylor Mountain). We took the kids for a fun drive in the hills the day before we went to Cave Falls, it was really pretty.

CABIN:
Then this last weekend we went to our cabin in Island Park for a weekend "family reunion". We went with my parents and my siblings. We had fun fishing, 4 wheeling, going to Yellowstone (the town) and exploring. We love trips to the cabin, I want to move there! It was sad to come back home, it is so peaceful in the mountains. James and I are going to try to go back in a couple of weeks with the kids during his 16 day vacation-yahoo! Oh except, we did find some "bear poop" behind our boat house which totally freaked me out (I know this because my dad is a poop expert and pointed it out to me)! I have a huge problem with bears because they see me as a food source. This was a bad moment for me, and it had hair in it (the poop) I don't know who it ate, but it was definitely a mammal eater and I just happen to be a mammal.

Our trip to to Yellowstone Imax-We saw Bears (the movie). Averi rode in Grandpa's truck.

This is Sawtell Mountain with some sort of power/something shaped like a giant soccer ball. I'm sure you have seen it if you have drove through Island Park. We decided to drive to the top of it to look out over Island Park. It is a VERY STEEP NARROW road to get there! We were all very nervous! I don't close my eyes because I think that by me watching the road I can have some kind of magical power to keep us from falling down the steep ravines or something.

This is the view of Sawtell from the river by our cabin-our fishin' hole.
Thanks to "Big Red" for getting us there safe!

We saw snow on top of the mountain, and this is how warm it was there.
It was 81 at the bottom.

The road to Sawtell Mountain was so freaky! This was my Dad's truck right by a cliff! And that wasn't the worst part either!

These are all pictures from the cliffs at the top of Sawtell, they are straight drop offs. It was sooo windy up there and it made me dizzy at the edges, so I was freaked out! James wouldn't even go by the edges, he gets too dizzy (more like too chicken). I was freaked out having my kids so close, I kept yelling for them to get back, and I never once let go of my kung foo death grip on Averi' s arm! But it was so pretty. You can see Henry's lake, Island Park Reservoir and Mt. Roosevelt from the top. Click on the pictures and you can see how steep it was a lot better.

The worst part is my dad kept having me look through binoculars at the edge to the bottom of the cliffs and it made me sooooo disoriented. I am truly surprised I did not fall off.

Peeing at the top of the world! Boys are so lucky!

FISHING:
We love to go fishing! It is so fun! I love to fish! We caught 6 fish, Taylor caught 4, Christian caught 1, and I caught 1-literally with my hands. I got mine to shore and it got off the hook and tried to swim away. Before it could, I ran down and grabbed it and threw it onto the shore before it could get away! Yahoo. Here are some pictures.

Here is our fishing hole! I have been fishing in this same spot pretty much since I was born, so it is so fun to bring my kids and remember what it was like to be a kid again! Here are my little fishermen/women! It would have 10 times more fun if all of the water skiers wouldn't have kept driving over our lines! So if you are a water skier, please respect the people fishing on the shore! That was so annoying!

What a weirdo!

And a good dad!

Here Taylor caught her 2nd fish and it was flipping around and it scared her and she was jumping away from it! It was too funny.

This is my dad the "master fisherman" helping Christian with the first fish he caught.

Here is the first fish-Christian's and the second-Taylor's.

James was being so patient and helpful.

I personally hate ripping the hooks out of the fish, so I made everyone else do it! It makes the worst ripping guts sound-GROSS!

But I actually like to clean them to see their guts, it is fun to cut open their stomach to see what they have been eating and it is fun to pop their air sac lung thingies-it's like bubble wrap! I let James do it this though. Yes-I know I am demented, that's just how I roll!

Anyway, it was so fun! I am getting the worst cabin fever at home with the kids right about now. Either school must start, or I must go away from here. This is good therapy for my insanity!

Potty training update!

2008-07-17T23:19:00.000-07:00

So...I officially hate potty training (no, I have never liked it) !!!!! So far this week Averi has learned how to get out of her bed, how to outsmart our "child proof" doorknob thingys, and how to flush the toilets! We have mastered zero potty training skills! This has made me very cranky! This is how my day goes:

-Averi wakes up at 6:00 a.m. gets out of bed and laughs (very loudly) while running on her tip-toes all the way to the bathroom. She then opens the door, and then (still laughing) runs in and flushes the toilet (and then laughs hysterically)!

-I have to lock the bathroom doors and pick them every time anyone has to go potty, so my day is full of "mom, I have to go to the bathroom really bad and I can't get the door unlocked!". Honestly, I should have lost 10 lbs. this week from running back and forth.

-Bedtime...I put Averi in bed and crawl into my comfy new bed and all I hear is Averi's music getting turned up to full blast every 5 min. (because she got out of bed to turn it up, and this is the only volume level she likes), and then more laughing and running to the bathroom flushing! Nothing threatens this child, so I just have to keep getting up and keep throwing her back into her bed(as she is laughing)!

-Midnight...I am in a "zombie like state" wondering how illegal tying up a child to a bed is! Sleep time goes by so fast, I don't even feel like I laid down for more than 10 min.! The next thing I hear is laughing and toilet flushing, it is some time between 6 and 7 a.m., and it starts again!

Averi somehow has an unlocked door radar because if there is a bathroom door left unlocked, she is laughing and running to flush every chance she gets. I am going to video this for you all to share in my joy! And, the worst part is her laugh! It would probably sound cute to the everyday onlooker, but to me it is an evil villain laugh that lets me know I have been "foiled again"!

How soon until school starts again?

P.S.-I have learned where the turn off valve to our toilet is, and I try to take advantage of that a lot. I challenge everyone to learn this important skill! (whaaa haa haa ha-this is my evil laugh)! Now I can "foil" Averi's plans!

Toodles!

So here it is, she is caught wet handed! I woke up Friday morning to this! Don't forget to pause my music player first! Yes, she always spins around (it's a blind thing) , and yes I did sterilize everything she touched, including her mouth! She is nasty!

Did I sign up for this?

2008-07-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

Day 2 Potty Training:

-wet in underwear 2 times
-peed on the floor 1 time
-peed in the toilet about 4 times (I don't know if she even notices she peed though, so does that count?)
-now thinks the toilet is a toy because big bro. taught her how to flush (I was trying to use her blindness to my advantage for once!)
-She actually just snuck out of her bed and ran into the bathroom to flush the toilet and is laughing hysterically -what the heck?! Is it bad that my child thinks the toilet is that funny?
-I am slowly losing my mind! I am a prisoner in my own crazy toilet house..........

To Be Continued...

HELP ME...PLEASE!

2008-07-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

I would love to post, but I am trying... I repeat, trying to potty train Averi (finally)! I knew it would be hard, but not this tough! She still thinks the toilet is a sitting stage for her singing and talking! She has peed in her undies 7 times and in the toilet 1 time (on accident)!

It really is hard to teach an old dog new tricks!

P.S.-don't wait until your child is almost 6 to potty train, it isn't good!

Child Slave labor rocks!

2008-07-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Christian teaching Taylor his skills that I had just taught him 10 min. prior to this moment!
Awesome, go Christian go!
Awesome Taylor! Look how she is pratcially laying flat to push this, it was so cute! I guess I just take my super human strength for granted sometimes!

We need a new subject other than the gay parade. Now I am choosing Child Slave Labor! This is one thing I am really enjoying about summer! I pay out $5.oo/wk per kid, and I get a lot of great housework and yard work in return. This gives me more time to sit on my butt and eat bon bons and watch my soap operas (YEAH RIGHT)! But seriously, I love my kiddos and I love the help they give me. This will especially come in handy when I get back from the Williams family reunion and have no brain left (no offense Williams family, but there are soooo many kids and you know you are thinking the same thing, so don't judge me) and I will begin potty training Averi (yes, finally)!

Wish me luck and hope I don't go "postal" this week! I am looking forward to doing something fun with our family, it should be an action packed adventure! I will bring pictures to prove it later! Hasta La Vista Babies!

Peace Out!

Oh yeah! I cannot forget my $20.00 bargain pool I bought the kids(I needed to upgrade from our redneck pond!). We have all just been swimmin' and sittin' back enjoying our drinks by our pool! Ahh...these are the salad days!

P.S.-If you are the person who has been setting fireworks off until midnight for the last week, watch your back! I am turning violent!

SAN FRANCISCO GAY PARADE 2007 -A SPECIAL TRIBUTE-

2008-06-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

I was watching a show the other day and they were talking about the San Francisco Gay Parade...I just smiled and knew what I wanted to blog about next! (No, it is not that I don't like gay people, I know a lot of great people who happen to be gay). However, I happened to be in San Francisco last year at the time of the gay parade, and I wanted to share my experience with everyone who hasn't had the chance to see it yet!

Picture this... downtown San Francisco 2007, it was a cold day but the streets were lined with devoted parade attendees. I had traveled with James to a work conference, so I was sitting alone in my hotel room overlooking the busy streets. James had meetings to attend, so I was supposed to just hang out and relax while he was gone (when we checked in, someone asked us if we were hetro., uh...duh! I didn't think I looked that much like a "she-male", and I surely didn't think James was "femmie" in anyway-whatever-I can't imagine that happening in Idaho). I knew that the parade would pass right next to our hotel, so I thought it would be interesting to watch from my hotel room. I started to see the people gather, and even though I was all by myself, I knew I had to get down there! I could not miss out on the "photo opps." that were about to happen.

Needless to say, I was this girl from Idaho by myself surrounded by thousands of gay/not gay/and kind of gay parade goers. I felt so brave! James had no clue where I was so I was hoping I didn't get mugged, murdered and thrown in a dumpster (hey, it could happen; I see it on Law and Order all of the time). Anyway, I saw a lot of things I had never expected to see in my lifetime, some I took pictures of, and some were not appropriate for anyone to see (especially in public! I guess S.F. doesn't enforce public lewdness laws). So, I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on all of my effort!

Notice that I kept with the "rainbow theme"!

Please be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them, so you can get the full effect!

The crowd starts gathering...

This is a news show I was watching. Yes, I took a picture of the t.v. because that girl in the red wasn't a girl, it was a guy announcer! Freaky!

Everything started out nicely-gay cheer leading squad...this is for you Pam! Then came the "Dikes on Bikes", for about 30 min., I couldn't take pictures because most of them were topless! YUCK! Most were on Harleys and Choppers in pairs, but some were on regular bikes or bicycle-built-for-two! I was laughing hysterically out loud the whole time! People started to "give me the evil eye"!

Then came this guy-I can't tell what was up with him. The balloon outfits in the background were crackin' me up! I wanted to pop them!

More balloon outfits and a lot more weirdness!

This was the start of the "leather district", which I couldn't take pictures of either because most were wearing leather chaps without underwear-lots of crack that day (and I don't only mean drugs!).

I love this sign, there were tons of them; so sad, yet so comforting!

This was the mayor of S.F., apparently he is really famous and stuff. He thought he was so cool, that's for sure!

Gay sheriff department-I took this for Travis (my sheriff brother-in-law), I thought we should start one up here! They seemed like a tight-knit group!

This was just creepy! Get a load of the guy with a HUGE snake on his shoulders! YIKES! Examine this picture closely, it has a lot of interesting features to it! (don't worry, kept nudity out!)

WHAT THE H-E-"DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS"? I just had to document this one! Don't worry, he isn't naked, just wearing gold body paint and gold speedo! HOT!

Weird! Notice our "yellow friend" is in the background too-how sweet!

I saved the best for last! I was almost rolling on the ground laughing when I saw these guys! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! What does this even mean? Are the men barbies? Do their barbie dolls have issues? Do they need help because they like to play with barbies? What the heck?!? Notice that they did bring their barbies along for extra support THANK GOODNESS! I have a feeling that those barbies will need their own therapy and support group!

Well, I am sorry to report that I didn't get pictures of the naked guy riding a bicycle because it looked too painful to even capture on film! And I really felt bad for his bicycle seat! NASTY!

Also the naked guy running down the street wasn't in my picture album, but it will forever be burned into my "creeped out" memory bank! I felt sorry for the little kids in the crowd! Who would even?....why would someone?....what were those parents thinking?

Sorry if this is offensive to anyone! It was dang funny! I still laugh my head off thinking about it!

Disclaimer: this blog is in no way intended to offend or make fun of "normal" gay people, only THE FREAKY ONES! Heaven help them! All I can say, is that I hope and pray that they are clinically insane or really high because there is no way rational human beings would act this way in public! I can't imagine having a "proud to not be gay" parade! Can you picture the outrage?!? It is so sad!

SEE YA!

I AM A FREAK OF NATURE!!!!

2008-06-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

Right now it is midnight! I should be asleep, but I am not! I just had to gripe about falling down again! I was walking in my back yard and tripped and fell flat on my face in a HUGE mud puddle! I was covered from chin to toes in yucky mud, water and grass! I started laughing and then crying at this ridiculous new behavior I have developed! I wanted to finally get to jump up and yell "Super-Star" (we don't get many second chances in life ya know), but nobody was around, so I did it in my head!

I either have an inner ear infection making me "off kilter", or I have diagnosed myself with a rare brain tumor that makes me dumber! It is probably a tumor, I get a lot of those (all diagnosed by myself of course). Did I mention that I am a hypochondriac? My family has stopped taking my tumors seriously, but you never know!

P.S.-Yes Dayna, I have a nice cut on my knee from my previous fall! It didn't rip my favorite pants thank goodness, it did however rip a hole in my ego!