Late night fun :)

What am I doing up this late at night (besides blogging and reading blogs)?

Yep--Laundry. Why? It can usually wait until tomorrow. Except----when your 16 your old comes running out of his bedroom, and in a panicky voice say "Oh, crap! (I don't like this word, but he has a bad habit of using it)--I need my warm up pants and shirt washed TONIGHT!!"

Since he was already going to bed, I (being the awesome mom that I am) agreed to stay up and get them washed and thrown into the dryer so they will be ready for him 1st thing tomorrow morning. (Alright, the truth is that little Benjamin wasn't asleep yet--he just went to bed a few minutes ago). They leave for Boise (state basketball tournament) tomorrow at 10 am. But he leaves for seminary at 6:30 am and needs to have everything ready by then.

Now--the only problem (and it's not really a problem) is that this laundry queen has been a busy queen bee this week (and last week). So while my piles of laundry usually look like the picture above, it really looked like this:

So I didn't have a full load. I had to go looking for dirty clothes, and washed a coat and some towels to get a mostly full load. At least my dirty pile doesn't look like this:

I hope to post again tomorrow, since we leave Thursday morning (early). If not--I will let everyone know how our trip to state basketball went!

My babies are going up!

I can't believe that Benjamin is almost 4 months old already. Time sure flies by sooooo fast! Emmalee loves to hold him, and she got giggling today because "he is too wiggly".


He is losing all of his dark, thick hair--the cradle cap didn't help! You gotta love this face!

Emmalee is peeking from behind Ben--she loves holding him, but he is getting so big. He has a very healthy appetite and I can tell he is going through a growth spurt because he is nursing a lot again.

Benjamin is such a great baby--I needed a nice, mellow caboose! He is only fussy when he is messy or hungry. Sometimes he gets a little vocal if he wants to be held--or sat up. I think he just wants a different view. Today when I was stretching (after exercising--yay), I was laying on my back and thought--things sure look different from this angle! Sometimes you forget how big and different things are from that perspective!

He has already learned to poise for the camera--what a ham! But this last picture is my favorite--he smiled on his own. I was telling Emmalee to smile, and this is what I got:

A smile from Benjamin, but not from Emmalee. Alright, you two--slow down and don't grow up too fast!

Van update

It's fixed!! Rusty put the new radiator in on Friday, and we drove it around town Friday and Saturday morning.


I decided to take Brienna (& Benjamin) into town to watch "Twilight" and do a little bit of shopping. We loaded up, drove to the interstate ramp, and that's when I tried to accelerate--35, 40....engine revving....45...sounds terrible--the engine is not shifting. Shooot!! I am on the interstate, can't turn around, and the van isn't working!!


No "Twilight" movie--I can't drive 17 miles to the nearest exit pushing 40.

So I use the "Authorized & Emergency Vehicles Only" turn around about 3 miles out. (I know, I'm not allowed to use this road, but it would be an emergency if I burned up the transmission!!!) Putt, putt---back home.

My husband was outside, and was surprised to see me back so soon. I figured that the transmission was ruined too (not just the radiator). But he said he hadn't put any more transmission fluid in because he thought not much had drained. So he checked the level, filled it up, took it for a test run (just on the highway, not the interstate) and within 15 minutes, we were back on the road heading to see "Twilight"!!! :)

We first stopped at Sonic for 1/2 price drinks, then shopped a bit at Wal-Mart, bought Brienna some more material for sewing projects, and then went to the movie!!!

Benjamin nursed through most of the movie, so I was actually able to sit through the whole movie! Great movie, now I just need to read the book (I have read the first 2 pages--just haven't had a lot of time yet for a book).

When I read a book, I like to have big chunks of time to read, and read, and read, and read :)

So--it was a great Saturday--the van IS running (thankfully), the girls saw the chick flick (and got some shopping & dinner date in), and I got a break from home!

State Basketball!!

We're going to state!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did it!! For the 2nd year in a row :)

Last night our boys won their district basketball game (42-33). We took 2nd in our district.

And now we're headed to state (in Boise, ID) next week. Last year I drove my son & some friends (JV team) across the state to watch the games. It was the 1st time back to state since 1977--so to go 2 years in a row is exciting! And Ethan gets to go as a player :)

My kids are going to LOVE me!!

I did it!!!

Start humming the Baby Bumble Bee song (I'm squishing up a baby, bumble bee...)

I sorted and folded the pile of socks,
Now my children will shout out--"She Rocks!"



I folded and sort-ed, finally--
Won't my children be so proud of me?



Only about a dozen mismatched socks--that's not too bad!





Oh--there's more dirty!!

Cooking Blunder

Okay--I thought that after 20 years of being out on my own, I knew how to cook food!! Sunday we had a big family dinner to celebrate my husband's uncle's 80th birthday. So we were asked to bring baked potatoes for 30 people. Knowing that Sunday was Ward Conference, I decided to get prepared on Saturday (you know... Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday!)

So I scrubbed 30 potatoes and decided to bake them in my big roaster pan. I've never baked potatoes in it before (just turkey), but read that it would take about 1 hour to bake. So before I stacked the tators in the pan on Saturday night, I decided to poke them with a knife (one less thing to do on Sunday) and then I staked those tators.

When we started eating, I thought the I had bought a rotten bag of potatoes--all of them had brown marks in them. It was only after the dinner (thanks to everyone for not commenting on the discoloration) that I figured out that the marks were from the oxygen getting in the holes that I had poke the night before!

This is what they looked like when I peeled the leftover ones. I cooked a few extra so we could have potato casserole on Monday.

My lesson I learned: while it is great to prepare some things before hand, don't poke the potatoes until you are ready to bake them!!!
Needless to say, the potato casserole was still delicious, so it wasn't a total failure! And our uncle had a wonderful day & meal.

Van troubles--again!

Okay--I had another run-in with a bird! The first incident that I'm referring to can be found at the following address:(http://http://busymomto6.blogspot.com/2009_01_25_archive.html).

It was Tuesday night, quite late, dark, and foggy. I had taken Brienna & Zane to the dentist earlier in the afternoon and shopped a bit. We (Brienna, Zane, & Benjamin) were driving home from watching the boy's district basketball game (we lost). About 10 miles from home, I saw (through the fog), what I thought was a clump of snow. As I switched my bright lights on, I realized it was a pretty big bird sitting in the middle of my lane. I had a second to react, so I applied the brakes, but the silly bird did not move--just sat there and hit the front of my van!!!

I screamed, because as it hit the van (thud), it then flipped up to the windshield right in front of my view {thump, thump--that's my heart beating a million beats a minute :)}, and over the top of the van.

I thought that it had hit the bumper/license plate. But after I had parked the van (by now it was after 11 pm), I started unloading the groceries, etc.--you know I can't make a trip into town without buying groceries!! As I unloaded, I heard a ton of liquid dripping (pouring) from under the van. That's when I discovered the damage.

So I had to go wake poor sleeping Rusty (he had stayed home with Emmalee who was sick, and Callum) to tell him the bad news and have him check it out. He asked what he could do about it at 11 at night, and I said nothing except make me feel better!He said it was the transmission radiator, but it looked like there was a nice big hole in it.

If you look close, you can even see some of the feathers the bird left behind! Wednesday after school, Rusty took the radiator out--so we didn't have to tow the van 45 miles to town to get it fixed. Friday he took the broken parts to town: the radiator was beyond repair, so a new one is on order, and he found a grill at the junk yard. But that took his whole Friday up!! Thanks Rusty--you're the greatest.

The van will be out of commission for about a week, so we are going to attempt to fit into the pickup to go to the next district basketball game (Sat. at 6 pm).

This is my first "accident"/damage to a vehicle!! I miss my van.

More Photos--Valentine Weekend Fun

Aunt Pamela worked on a puzzle (w/Ben's help?). Brienna and Pamela were the main 2 puzzle-solvers.

I wanted a picture of us at our table--we recently put the high chair on the table, and as we sat for our Sunday meal, it hit me that we have a big family!!

Yum, yum--American tacos (taco salad w/Frito's).

I love family meals like this one (everyone liked the food!)--some days it is hard to get everyone sat down at the same time! Sundays are one of those days that everyone is usually home.

Here are the 2 pies I made for Valentine's day--we used the pie cherries that we had picked & froze this fall (from Grandpa's trees). The other pie is a blackberry. Now I just need a pie crust shield so my edges aren't so done!

Brienna with Benjamin & Emmalee. She is a great big sister--always helping with the little ones & housework!

Callum loves holding Benjamin--and giving him hugs and kisses.

Tummy time for Benjamin.

What a cutie--we put bibs on him because lately he has been spitting up a little after each feeding. And just enough that we needed to change his whole outfit. One day we went through 4 outfits. So the genius in me decided to pull out his bibs!
Benjamin is such happy baby--we love you, little one!

Waiting for the Turkey to cook!

This is what we did Valentine's morning--Saturday Feb. 14th--went to the church and shot hoops. Here is Callum with his shot:

Emmalee brought her own ball too--she shot it into the tote we brought the balls in.


Zane shooting (and making) a 3-point shot. He is quite the player!

Dad and Zane playing 1-on-1. I'm not sure who won, but Dad gets bonus points for his goofy defense moves--he got Zane laughing sooo hard!
Aunt Pamela playing with Callum--his best move is stealing the ball from her!
We played at the church for about 1 hour while the turkey cooked in our roaster. Brienna stayed at home watching Benjamin.

Scouting dinner

Last night (Wednesday) was our scout district's recognition dinner. They recognize all the Boy Scouts who received their eagle in 2008 on this night. Ethan had his Eagle Court of Honor in July 2008. We had to round up Ethan from basketball practice (he had forgotten the dinner so was staying late to shoot). We carpooled with Grandpa to the dinner (it's in a town 30 miles from us).

Ethan wasn't too thrilled at being there (since he really didn't know anyone) and I couldn't get any pictures of him looking up!

Only 8 of the 36 boys attended the dinner. Here they are receiving the Eagle charge and a special Boy Scout coin.

Come on Ethan--look at the camera!!!

And here I am with the award I received. I had just given my husband and father-in-law a bad time about leaving me in the dark about getting an award. Last year I received the district merit award and the year before was Cub master of the Year. So I really didn't think there was anything else I would be receiving! But they didn't know about this award either. It was the Extra Miler award. I was pleasantly surprised! I love the scouting program!!!