This Week Was Nuts!

I have to say that this was the craziest week ever. Not because of the kids either! They were actually really good this week! No it was crazy just because some weird events that happened. So we'll start at the beginning, which was actually Monday.
Here's a picture of a really pretty sunrise that I took on Monday morning.

Things were going good, I was cleaning the house and got the girls off to pre-K. DJ was down for a nap and I was folding clothes. Richard got home early and mentioned he had to run to Cutbank to get a few things. He wanted me to come but I was snack mom so I told him to just go. I told him (a few times, but who's counting) to take the burb. But he wanted to take his car (who knows why!)! Anyways after I was snack mom we ran to Raymond to meet mom and get a few things from her. On the way home I got a call from Richard who proceeded to tell me that his car was dead......big surprise...not!!! ha ha ha! You have to realize that this car has been on it's last leg for a while now. So he's stuck in a different country (it's only 1hr away from us though) with a dead car, which isn't worth the money to get it fixed. So I made a quick decision and turned to go to my parents place. Where I hooked up to dad's car trailer. Luckily my parents were home and took the kids. I have to say that dad and I tried 3 different vehicles with the crazy trailer to see if the lights worked. We got the flashers working on his truck, but no lights with any other vehicle. By this time we were running out of time (the border closed at 6pm). So I told dad I'd just drive with the flashers on (true farmer style!)!

I didn't have time to stop at my house or anything. I just flew through Magrath and literally floored it all the way to the border. I'm sure people thought I was crazy....flying along (not telling you how fast I was going because my dad reads this blog!!) with my flashers on! I made it to the border at 5:55pm. After that I was able to slow WAY down and go the speed limit and not stress. I was about 10 miles out of Cutbank and I gave Richard a call to tell him where I was and figure out where he was. Well I was about 2 miles out and I noticed the truck was chugging. It was dead yet, but I was running on fumes. I was pumping the gas pedal and it would surge forward, then nothing, then go forward. I coasted for quite a while doing this while I was looking for a place to pull off (the road was very skinny). I pulled over and the truck died.

I called Richard and told him I ran out of gas. We both started laughing, and I asked him, "Now what."! While I was talking I noticed a truck pulling out of the Oilfield business across the road. I jumped out and ran across the road waving at him. I guess he didn't see me until I was at his passenger side and I really scared the guy! He stopped and I told him what happened. He was very nice and we went on picked up Richard on the way to the gas station. Anyways he helped us out, or else we'd still be sitting there! A very nice guy that went out of his way to help us! We were very grateful. Funny thing is we didn't even get his name, but we thanked him over and over!

So we got the truck going and went straight to the gas station and filled up. Then we went to the business where Richard's car was sitting in the parking lot. Richard had bought a hand winch so we could get his dead car on the trailer. It was only 6' long. So it took us awhile. I would hook the chains up and he'd pull the car 6' closer and then I'd put the brakes on the car and re hook the chains up. We had to do that over and over. We finally got the dumb car on the trailer! By the time we had it strapped down and ready to go I was a frozen ice cube. I only had a hoody on, didn't have time to get a warm coat. It was almost 9pm by the time we had that all done. We just stayed the night and came home in the morning. I told Richard that all he had to do was ask me to get away for the night, instead of breaking down in the US and me coming to save him! Oh well, we got a good laugh out of it! My parents stayed with my kids and we were home around 10am the next morning (we did a quick grocery shop, since we were down there!)!

So that's how we started the week! Oh I should mention that I told Richard since I had to rescue him that I get to tell him what to do with the car! I refused to let him unload it at our house, where it would of sat there forever. I phoned the car junk place and had Richard take it there. He got a whole $75 for it! Ha ha ha ha! I think it's so funny! I'm so happy to have that thing gone. Now if we can only get the old van and truck gone too! We have way too many vehicles at our house!

We got home Tuesday and I was watching my SIL's kids for the day. So it was kind of a crazy day. It went ok though. The kids were all a little grumpy for some reason, but we survived! Wednesday the girls went to school in the afternoon and that went good. I got a few things done around the house. Wednesday morning the kids played around and made forts in all the rooms. This was Abbi's house!

Here's DJ's fort, it's his playpen on it's side with ALL his blankets over it. He thought that it was so much fun!

Then Thursday morning came around. I was feeling kind of lazy that morning! So we were having a slow morning! Around 9am a HUGE gust of wind came up. It wasn't a normal wind sound, it sounded like my house was seriously going to blow away. It made me jump and made DJ come running to me screaming, it was that loud. It lasted about 10 seconds. It was so weird. I didn't think much of it. I phoned my mom about 10 mins later and told her what happened. While I was talking to her I was opening the blinds to all my windows. I noticed my neighbours across the street running around grabbing things and I also noticed 2 guys in my back yard. I was a little confused and wasn't going to go out, because I was still in my jammies. I was looking out in our backyard and telling mom that the wind moved all our big toys up to our garage and neighbours fence. Then all of the sudden I realized, uh where is our trampoline. My mom was like, you can't see it. I couldn't see it anywhere. So I ran downstairs and got a big coat and boots on and went out to see where it was. The 2 workers, who are building a house behind us told me what happened. I guess with that huge gust of wind it picked up the tramp (it's not a light one either it was the heavy fancy one from costco) up and it went straight up in the air and slammed against the side of our neighbours house. Then it went straight up in the air again and went over top of their roof and flew over a vacant lot and land my the next house (3 houses away from ours). It was so crazy. They said it was the craziest sight they have ever seen. Later we had the guys that our building a house to the west of us tell us they saw it too. But they said it was crazy because the view they have of our house is just the front. So they couldn't see the tramp behind our house. But they said all of the sudden there was this huge tramp going straight up in the air and then over top of the neighbours house

It kind of freaked me out. It was crazy. I went out took side of scaffolding (the big medal part with the ladder) and carried it over to the tramp, which was upside down and up it on the tramp so it wouldn't blow away again. We found out later that our neighbours (across the road) tent trailer was picked up by the wind and slammed into their house. It was a crazy wind. So needless to say we our out a tramp. It ripped the matt and the netting and poles are history too. The frame is ok, so we'll see what we can do. This is a picture of where the trampoline should of been, right beside the white stool.

Here's our neighbours house, if you look closely you can see the 2 white spots on their siding where it's broken (the hanging light was already like that), and the eaves trough right above the french doors are smashed. There's a couple shingles missing too, where it went over the roof.
Here's our poor trampoline. As you can see by the picture it flew quite a ways. Because there are no drag marks, this is where it landed. Our house is on the other side of the blue one.

The rest of the day DJ was screaming and grabbing his ears and yelling, "OUIE, OUIE." So I called and got him in to see a doctor later in the afternoon. We went and I came prepared with our little DVD player. The kids sat and watched a movie. It worked out good. Their cousins were there too (Cam's kids) and they sat and watched the movie too. So at least it wasn't crazy in the waiting room which is what usually happens. We had to wait for quite a while, but we finally got in. The doctor looked in DJ's ears and said they were fine, they had fluid but weren't infected. He said there was probably a lot of pressure in his ears (which hurts, I know!). So nothing to be done, but it's hard to be sure, when all my kids have had bad ears. Oh while we were waiting for the doctor in the office, the girls ran to the bathroom. I told them to come right back. I was checking out the door and saw Abbi and Brianna walking back. I asked them where Cadence was when I heard a very LOUD SCREAM! Oh there she is! I was trying to find her and she was screaming her head off. I guess she went around the circle (rooms are in a circle) the wrong way and went in the wrong room. When she saw someone else in the room she thought I left her. The nurse hurried and got her and brought her too me. She was so upset. She kept screaming, "Why you leave me" (that is her biggest fear, me leaving her). She cried for a while, but I finally got her to settle down. Then the doctor came in. We went to grab stickers after and the kids were telling me which one they wanted. DJ was growling and pointing at the stickers, which usually means he wants the dinosaur one. So I gave it to him and he screamed and grabbed another one. He was getting so mad and kept saying more. I didn't understand what he wanted and finally told him we were leaving. Which made Cadence scream again, because she didn't want me to leave DJ. By this point I'm feeling a little frazzled, and am getting a lot of looks. I got the girls walking to the door and told DJ to come. Well he had a melt down. Was screaming his head off and pointing at the stickers so I picked him up and he arched his back and was screaming. That was how we walked out of the doctor's office. I couldn't get him in his seat (he's too strong when he arches his back). I was getting very frustrated. Right then Cam pulled up beside me and jumped out of his truck. DJ loves his Uncle Cam. Uncle Cam got DJ to settle down and into his seat. Thanks, Cam you saved me! I was going to go crazy! One night at the dinner table DJ was being a goof and took a huge forkful of margarine and started eating it. He's showing us that's it's almost gone! So gross!

The family eating dinner, laughing at DJ! I love my new table and chair set, so nice!

So that's basically a very long summary of my crazy week. I'm so glad that today is Friday! Richard and I are going out to dinner tonight with the Jenkin's. YEAH! We can have a little break.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Count Your Many Blessings!

Today I had the opportunity to go to our Stake Releif Society Women's Conferance. Magrath Stake does this every year and I love it. This was my 2nd time going. It started at 9am this morning and I am so glad that I went.

I came away from it feeling so uplifted and filled with the Spirit. I decided to write down some things while they are fresh in my memory. We got to choose to go to 3 workshops out of 10. It's so hard to just choose 3. They all sounded like they'd be so good to go too. But we could only go to 3. So we decided on the classes and away we went. The first class was on getting through our trials. What I got out of that class was to:

COUNT YOUR MANY BLESSINGS! They pointed out that it's sometimes easy to get lost in our trials and feel sorry for ourselves. But that's the perfect time to sit down and count our blessings. I decided to make a list of just some of my blessings in my life:
1. Richard - I feel very blessed with the wonderful husband I have and he is a great father to our kids.

Richard just got DJ out of the bath and they are laying down watching hockey together!

2. My kids - All 4 of our kids are a HUGE blessing in my life. I learn so much from them every day, they have such sweet spirits and it's so refreshing to hear their perspective on things.

Cadence, Brianna and Abbi cuddling in my bed watching cartoons!

DJ ready for church! Don't you just love his hat!

3. Our Families - Both of our familes have been a big part of our lives. I feel like we are where were at today because of our families. They are always there to love and support us.
A picture of my family just before David left on his mission last year.

4. The Gospel - Again I feel like we wouldn't be here without the gospel. Every day is a learning experience and the gospel keeps me grounded and focused on what is important in life.

5. Our Home - Especially in this last month, I feel so blessed to have a home to keep us warm. We've been working hard on this house and I feel blessed to have it.

6. Spencer Plumbing and Heating - What a blessing this has been in our life this past year. We took a leap of faith last year and I feel so blessed that things have worked out. Richard has worked so hard to provide for us and I am thankful for that.

7. The Temple - What a blessing to live so close to the temple. We've been trying hard to go more often and need to keep working on that.

8. Small towns - I just feel like it was a blessing for our family to move to a small town. It's taken a bit to settle in, but now that we have I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

9. Friends - We have some great friends. In the past year we've met a couple here and have gotten to know them better. We've done a lot of things together as couples and it's been a lot of fun.

10. Canada - What a great blessing to live in the country we do. It's beautiful and we have all our freedoms. I love my country!

Well those are some of my BIG blessings and I could go on and on with more. But I feel very blessed with everything we have in our life. In the past 6 months there have been some very sad things happen to some families in this community. It breaks my heart to see it happen. It also is neat to see how the community pulls together to help those families in their time of need. I'm so thankful for the trials that I have and have been through. I know that is what strengthens us, even though it's hard to see that when you are in the middle of it. As you can see this class really made me think! It was a wonderful class.

The last class we went to was the Power of Music. It was an amazing class. It was totally different than what I thought it was going to be. She talked about music is subjective. One song can mean something very special to one person and be just a song to another. She picked out 8 songs that had a special meaning to her and shared them with us. Before each song she told us a bit of the story that leads up to why that song was special to her in that time of her life. Then we listened to the song and then she shared a scripture that went along with it. She encouraged us to think of a song that was special to us and write it down or email to her to share. Then she is going to put them all together and email them all back to us. During the class a song came to me that is very special to me. So here is my story for this song:

After I had my girls I was very busy taking care of them. Most of the time I had someone helping me feed them when they were young. But once in a while I was by myself. One of these times I got the girls all on my bed. I think they were around 6 months old. I got them all propped up with their bottles and layed there in front of them to help. I had turned on the tv to Opera and was watching her interview Sarah McLachlan over her new song "Ordinary Miracle". At the time I remember feeling very overwhelmed and little down with myself. I wasn't really paying attention to the tv until Sarah started singing the song. It was just what I needed to hear. I remember listening to it and tearing up. Here I was feeling sorry for myself when I had 3 "miracles" laying right there on my bed. I loved that song. I even put together a little slide show for my girls 1st year and that's one of the songs I put on. It still brings tears to my eyes when I sit down and watch it. My girls love watching their "baby movie". They recognize that song whenever it comes on the radio and tell me, "Hey mom that's our baby song." It has special meaning to me and my family and whenever I hear that song it always takes me back to when my girls were babies.

Here's an example of how they were sometimes fed. They were a lot younger then 6 months here. I was always there with them and usually took turns holding one while feeding. It was very hard feeding them by myself at this age and so this is what I did. That way when one was ready to burp I could just pick them up and burp them and then on to the next baby!

Here they are at about 5-6 months old. This was how I usually set them up to eat their bottle. I'd just stick a blanket on their tummys and put the bottle in! Again, that's not how we always fed them. When Richard was home he, of course, helped me. I also had both my mom's! But sometimes I did end up feeding them by myself and I survived!

I just felt like writing down some of my feelings before I forgot. It was a perfect way to start a Saturday.

Robert Munsch!

Last Friday afternoon we got to go see Robert Munsch in Raymond. A family in Raymond won a writing contest and the prize was having Robert Munsch come to the community. My kids love me reading his books so I thought we'd give it a try.
Here he is with part of the family that won the contest. He was reading their story to us. Very cute!

We got to the Raymond High School gym at about 1:45pm. It was packed. We were able to find a seat near the back, which was fine with me. My kids didn't know what to think with all the craziness going on around us! Well it started and Robert Munsch told us a bunch of different stories. The only complaint I have was the volume. It was SO LOUD! We were in the back and it was loud. Poor Brianna sat there the whole time with her hands on her ears! Abbi was getting into it and laughing when he made his funny sounds. Cadence enjoyed it too!

Here's my girls with my mom. Abbi has a funny grin on, because she just finished laughing really loud at part of the story!

This is how Brianna sat for most of the time, with her hands on her ears! Abbi making a funny face!

DJ didn't really care. He had fun running around (another reason why we were in the back!). All in all it was a fun afternoon. What made it even better was as we were leaving the house Richard pulled up and hurried and changed and came with us. So that made our afternoon. I had to run DJ to the bathroom a few times to go potty! That boy is doing awesome! He's gone two nights without a diaper on too. It's so nice! DJ getting ready to take off running! He had fun running around, but he did come up and tell me at one point that he needed to go pee (by grabbing himself and grunting)! We ran and sure enough!

Anyways that was our afternoon with Robert Munsch. He even stayed afterwards and signed 1 book per family. We didn't bring any of our books, but there was no way we would stood in that huge line anyways! He can tell great stories and it was fun to hear them!

Happenings!

I have nothing really exciting to post. I just thought I'd write down what's been happening his past week. Last weekend my nephew, Chase, had a basketball tournament here in Magrath. We went and watched him Friday afternoon. His team won and that meant he was going to play again Saturday morning.

Well Stacey had talked to me ahead of time and we had supper out our house. It was Mikah's 11th birthday so we had a little birthday party. My girls were so excited. I decided to get a pinata (this was a last minute decision) and tell them it was for everyone who's had a birthday in Dec and Jan. It's my cheap way of getting out of throwing a birthday party (not my favorite thing to do). They were so excited. We had a lot of people there that had had birthdays. To name them: Stacey, Mom, Megan, Abbi, Brianna, Cadence, Mikah and Shaylee. So we had pizza for supper and ice cream cake. Mikah opened her presents then I told everyone we had a pinata downstairs. They were all excited.

So down we went and everyone got a few turns, until it busted open. It was so funny to watch everyone dive to the ground. DJ wasn't liking hitting the pinata. He was buds with Trayden and wouldn't let Trayden put him down (he wasn't feeling the best). But when that candy went flying he ran in the middle and started throwing the candy around. Then he noticed everyone was grabbing candy and making a pile in front of them. So he then started grabbing handfuls and pulling it in front of him. It was so funny. He had a HUGE pile that we gave to others too. It was a big hit, especially for my kids, they loved it!

DJ was the first one to hit the pinata. This picture makes it look like I'm a floating head! ha ha ha!

Brianna taking her turn at hitting the star! Love how we hung it? Richard and Dad were getting tired from holding it!

Cadence trying to hit it as hard as she could!

Here's the birthday girl, Mikah, taking her turn at whacking the star!

We woke up Saturday morning to snow. I should say a blizzard. It was blowing so hard and snowing. I was glad we weren't going anywhere outside of Magrath. We went and watched Chase's game at 9:15am and they won that. It was a close game and fun to watch. We went to the finals at 2pm and they played against Magrath. Chase's team won the tournament. Way to go Chase! It was fun to cheer for him and his team. They did so good!

It was a relaxing weekend. I have to say that I feel kind of spoiled to pull my suburban into my heated garage. It's so nice! I can get the kids out into a nice warm garage, and take my time getting my grocery's out, without freezing to death! It snowed all night and we woke up to huge drifts everywhere on Sunday. I went to church with the girls. DJ still wasn't the happiest kid and still potty training. Richard wasn't feeling good either so they stayed home. I opened the garage door and was shocked with how much snow there was and how cold it was. I had to put the burb in 4x4 and floor it out. I got to the street, which was worse, and told the girls to hang on. I floored it again and we barely made it down the street. It was crazy. They were all yelling and laughing at me! It was pretty crazy out there. I didn't take any pictures though. We just stayed home after we got home from church. It was nice to relax in our warm house!

DJ is doing so good with his potty training. He finally got his Mack truck. He loves it! He's at the point where I can just remind him to tell me if he has to go to the potty. He'll be downstairs playing, while I'm making supper or something, and I'll hear a clump, clump, clump, up the stairs. He comes running around the corner yelling, "MUM" and either plugging his nose (meaning he has to pee, or has one hand on his bottom)! It's so funny. I'll run him in and sit him down and he'll go without all the screaming now. Yeah! It's been great.

He'll just go sit down and play with his new truck. He loves to load as many cars as he can in it, then he'll dump them out and do it again!

He just dumped the cars out and deciding which ones to load first!

On Monday DJ was still so sad. He had his happy moments, but mostly wanted me to hold him. I should of taken him to the doctors on Friday. But I took him in on Monday. Dr. S looked at him and sure enough he had strep and ear infections. Poor kid. No wonder he's been so miserable. He's on medicine now and is feeling a lot better. Man, he's tough. He reminds me of Abbi. They don't complain very much. If it was Cadence or Brianna, I would know for sure if something was wrong! Cadence just screamed whenever she had ear infections (which was a lot when she was younger), and never stopped! Brianna would just go lay down and not move when she was sick, and she still does that. But DJ and Abbi will complain a little, or be a little grumpy, but they still do everything and have happy moments. So I have a harder time deciding if they are sick or not! It's easier now that Abbi can tell me.

With the cold weather we've stayed inside most of the time. It's just been way too cold to go out and play. The kids really want to go play in the snow, maybe tomorrow. But we've had fun playing and painting pictures, and coloring. We also made some cookies together. All the kids had fun with that. DJ loves to play with his dad. If Richard gets on the floor or bends over, DJ will launch himself at his dad and scramble onto his back. It's so funny to watch. DJ loves to go for a ride on his dad's back!

Here are all the kids helping me make cookies! DJ always has to be right on the cupboard!
DJ going for a ride on his dad's back! He's pretty good at holding on tight with his legs and staying on! Funny to watch!

So that's what's been happening around here. Like I said nothing too exciting. Oh I should write down something Abbi said. I was taking Abbi and Brianna over to their friends, Lillie's house. I was snack mom for Cadence. Anyways Abbi must of heard me talk to Lillie's mom and I called her by her first name, Barbie. I told Abbi and Brianna that morning that they were going for to play with Lillie. Well Abbi looked at me with a concerned look and said, "Now mom do I call Lillie's mom Barbie?" I replied (trying not to laugh, because she looked so serious), "No you can call her Lillie's mom or Sister Stringham." She then looked at me and said, "But her name is Barbie right?" Sheesh what a funny girl. She doesn't miss a thing!

Have a good rest of the week!

My Big Boy, DJ!

One of my goals for this year was to potty train DJ. He has shown some interest in the past couple of months, but truthfully, I wasn't ready! I told myself after the holidays we'll focus on him. Well I guess DJ thought I wasn't doing this fast enough and took matters in his own hands!

My big boy all ready for church in his new outfit I got him. He looks so grown up in it! He wouldn't stand their for the picture he had to take mine at the same time! Silly boy!

He woke me up on Tuesday morning by tapping my head and saying, "Mum, mum, mum, mum." I opened my eyes and looked at him and he was pointing at his diaper and holding his nose. He had pulled his pants down to his ankles. I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty and he nodded his head yes. So I sat him down and cleaned up the bathroom a little. Then I heard him say, "Uh oh.". I looked over and he was standing up looking in his potty. He had gone No. 2! I was shocked. So I cheered him and we did a little dance and he flushed it down the toilet. I thought, ok I guess we are potty training starting now!

I have to admit things were a little rocky on Tuesday and Wednesday. So much so, that I broke down and bought an e-book on potty training for $27. Yeah, kind of a rip off, but I didn't know what to do. You'd think after potty training 3 at once I'd be a pro, but no. I think when it comes to potty training, it's hard with 1, 2 or 3! It's just hard and I hate it! So I read the book and it gave me some ideas of what to do with boys. But, DJ was having nothing to do with it. By Wednesday night he was running a fever and was feeling miserable. I felt bad, that he was sick and I was trying to potty train him. So I told Richard I was going to lay off and once he starts feeling better we'd start again. He agreed.

This was on Monday night. He put Cadence's head band over his eyes and was chasing the girls around. He was being a monster. It was pretty funny!

They did this for quite a while! He had fun being the monster and making all his sisters scream!

DJ slept all night and woke up the next morning, dry! I kept him in his diaper, but he kept running to me holding his nose. I'd check his diaper and he was still dry, so I sat him on the toilet. The poor boy was terrified of going in the toilet or potty. But he didn't want to go in his diaper either. So I finally had to hold him on the toilet till he went. I talked to him and rubbed his back, told him it was ok. I don't remember my girls being that terrified. I felt so bad, because he was crying so hard. But he finally went and we celebrated and he got to put some stickers on his chart. He was never interested in candy for an award so after he puts a sticker on his cart I give him about 8 small stickers that he can decorate a paper with. He loves doing that. So he'll sit at the table and color and decorate his paper. That's what he gets to do as he award. He had no accidents at all on Thursday.
Here's DJ on Thursday night right before bed time. He went to the potty and was busy coloring and decorating his paper with stickers.

He absolutely LOVED getting his own stickers. What a great reward!

On Friday he again woke up dry and went pee in the potty. He was excited to get his stickers. Oh I forgot to mention that we went into Lethbridge Thursday morning (he stayed dry the whole time) and he got to pick a toy he really wanted. It was Mack from Cars with McQueen on the trailer. Cars is his all time favorite movie. Watches all the time. So he was pretty excited about the truck. We got home and I explained to him that he had to go No 2, 10 times in order to get the truck. So we put it up on a shelf. He is half way to getting his truck! I did this with my girls and it worked so good.

He did good on Friday. He had 2 little accidents, which were kind of my fault. He was yelling at me and I was in the middle of something and ignored him (I know, so bad)! He was so devestated that he peed his pants that he ran and sat on his potty and wouldn't get off. I felt so bad. So I have been a lot more attentive and drop anything when he calls my name. He's been doing so good. Hopefully he keep doing good. He loves that he gets to wear his Cars underwear! He crys when we take them off at night to put on his diaper. He's been dry 4 nights in a row. Pretty soon, I think he'll be able to wear them at night too.

Funny to think I was so frustrated on Wednesday, thinking he'd never catch on. I was ready to quit. But I think the reason he was having such a hard time on Wednesday was because he was just feeling rotten.

Way to go DJ, we are so proud of you!

It's A New Year!

This is very late, but better late than never! I can't believe 2010 is gone. Here we are in the new year, 2011. I felt like 2010 was GREAT! We learned, loved and laughed, a lot during the year, with maybe a little bit of crying!!

We again decided to do our own New Year's Eve party with our kids (early of course)! Then we got a baby sitter, once the kids were asleep, and went over to our friends house, the Jenkin's. To start our party I told the girls on the way home from Raymond that we were going to have a party. We stopped and rented a movie that the kids would like. They were so excited, but I kept telling them that we weren't having the party till things were picked up, jammies on and supper over with. Well we got home and I started to get supper ready. I heard Cadence yell my name and went to see what was up. All three were standing in the bootroom in their jammies on (it's only 4:30pm) with big smiles on their faces! They cleaned up and got their little table all ready for the snacks and treats! It was so cute.

We made them come eat first then we cleaned supper up and went downstairs to start our party! The kids were SO EXCITED! I made plates of goodies and took them downstairs. They had their little tea plates and cups set up on the table. I also made them a yummy drink (apple juice with sprite). They snacked and drank and laughed at their movie. It was a lot of fun.

Here they are snacking at their table and watching their movie!

Once the movie was over I handed out their party hats, and horns and we counted down from 10. Richard had some confetti poppers (4 of them) that he pulled when we got to 1 and yelled, HAPPY NEW YEAR. The kids thought that was great. They loved their party and had a blast. They were ready for bed!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! The kids had a blast with their horns and poppers!

We are so lucky to have such great kids! They go to bed so good. If we ever let them stay up past 7:30pm, Cadence is the first one that comes to us and tells us it's their bed time. I swear, she has an internal clock in her head! She has a hard time staying up late. Which is nice. The others would stay up late, but they don't fight going to bed. So they were all in bed and asleep by 7:40pm.

We then went over to the Jenkin's and had fun with their family. We didn't do anything to exciting. It was just fun to talk and laugh the time away! Oh, and eat! Lots of yummy things. We actually made it till midnight and then came home. I was so tired. Gave Richard his New Year's kiss and I was asleep!

New Year's day came bright and early. We went to Raymond at noon for the Pitcher Family get together. It was so much fun. We did it last year, and will probably try to do it every year. Mom books the church and we have the gym and kitchen and other rooms to socialize in. We played games, played ball, ate lots and did a lot of visiting.The kids got pulled behind the quad and had fun with that. I went once and almost froze my face off, it was cold out!

DJ loves watching his older cousins play basketball, then he'll go out and try to play too!

This was the "eating" room! It was a relaxing and fun day!

We were there from 12-7pm. We left and came home with very tired kids. DJ didn't get a nap, so he was gone by the time we got to the highway. He kind of woke up when we got home but all he wanted was his bed, he didn't even want me to take off his coat! It was a very fun day.

On Sunday we didn't have church till 11am. I wish we could always go to church at 9am. It's my favorite time! We get home in time for lunch and nap time! I find 11am a hard time. But we survived it the first week! The girls are now in CTR 5. DJ is still in nursery. He loves going now. Doesn't cry any more! YEAH! I went to pick him up and they were playing a monkey game where they were jumping up and down and acting like monkeys. He didn't want to leave! All this week he will all of the sudden act like a monkey! It's so cute. His favorite jammies now (over his puppy ones) are his new chistmas monkey jammies! Always wants to wear them. He's a funny boy when it comes to clothes. Anyways I have a whole nother post of my big boy!

The girls were very excited to learn that their primary teacher moved up with them. PHEW! That's all I have to say. I was preparing them to get a new teacher. They were not happy about it and Abbi even said she wouldn't go. So we were all happy to learn that Sister Perry is still teaching them. She's a great teacher and my kids love her. As a sidenote to myself she is Donna Fraser's sister. Donna taught me in Young Women's, way back when. I was pretty close to Donna and still enjoy running into her and visiting. So it's kind of neat that the girl's favorite teacher is Donna's sister! Brother Johnson (Donna's and Sis Perry's father), also is in our ward. I think we entertain him in church. For some reason, DJ has always gone up to Bro Johnson and either gives him a hug or shakes his hand. Sometimes this happens in the middle of Sacrament meeting! He's so good with DJ! I really enjoy our ward.
A beautiful picture of a sunset. The girls will call out to me, "Mom, hurry the sky is pink, come see!"

Anyways we had a Happy New Year and I hope everyone else did too!