New Couch Cushions!! Woo-Hoo!

 Sooo... I love our couches. But we got them 6 years ago, and they were used then, although in barely used condition. They get a lot of use, and I have washed the seat cushions too many times. They had gotten to the point that they had a few holes in them, the piping was totally coming off and unraveling, and they were disgustingly dirty. And I couldn't wash them anymore or they would disintegrate. 

Since I can't afford new couches, and I really like these and the frame and cushions themselves are all in great shape, I thought I would compromise and just re-cover the cushions and the pillows- the things that were the worst. 

I don't sew more than a straight line, so I put an ad on the BYU-I bulletin board for a sewer who could make the cushions and pillow covers for $100. 

I had bought some nice upholstery fabric a long time ago when it was on sale. And even though it wasn't the same fabric, I thought it would still look nice with it. 

 Anyhoo... I found a girl right away who was soo nice and did buttons on the pillows and made me four throw pillow covers for $25 more. 

Here are the before pictures, which are rather horrifying to even put on here.

Do you see how I turned the cushions "zipper out," because then you couldn't see the piping falling apart? 

Here are the "afters", and I think they look a whole lot better!

 Happy day!! I think they look even better in real life and it feels sooo much cleaner and nicer in there now. It makes me so happy!! And I don't have to feel so embarrassed when people come over. I don't know how much long we'll get out of them, but anything is better!!

Just a cute picture of Emme reading her books.

And I just thought it was cute how her hair curled this day. It reminds me of Charlie Brown's little sister Sally.

We spent all day today outside working to get our garden areas ready. We got most everything planted except the tomatoes. Whether or not anything will grow is yet to be seen!

Here is what happens after a day in the garden.

And this is why we had to put a little fence around this part of the garden!!

Tradition! Tradition! (To the tune of Fiddler on the Roof)

This might be a little overdue, but who's keeping track? So, one of our family traditions is to go down to Salt Lake and march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade with our kids in their kilts and cute get-up. Last year Emme was only like 12 days old and had only been out of the hospital for four days, so it was kind of hard. But what a difference a year can make! The kids get funner every year and enjoy it and look forward to it, too. I wonder if and at what age they will start not wanting to go? Personally, I think they will always want to go, we will just do different things (like Lagoon!!) and that will be great when it comes, too!

We left on Friday, and it took us about an hour just to get out of town- and that was after we were in the car!! A stop at Wal-Mart for a new booster seat explains a lot about that.

Of course, the first place we had to visit was the Christus Statue on Temple Square. Alex loves it sooo much and we always have to ask the sister missionaries to play the narration several times. The kids also had fun just running around and Alex took a trip up and down the escalators.

After that it was like four o'clock, so we drove forever away, but closer to our hotel, and ate at Golden Corral. Now, we like Golden Corral, because where else can one kid get pizza, meatballs and barbeque sauce, another salad and mac and cheese and another one cottage cheese and peaches? Poor little Emme had not slept at all in the car and was sooo tired. She kept putting her head on the table to rest.

The kids were so super excited to get to the hotel and go swimming. Tristan said, "I'm going to be a shark! Mommy, what are you going to be?" To which I of course replied, "I will be a mermaid." Lainey laughed and said, "No, Mommy! You can be the whale!" Thank you, Alaina.

Tristan talked up a storm with our waitress and told her everything we were doing and invited her along, as well. He tried to invite the diners around us, too, be we convinced him not to ask them.

 

At the hotel, all ready for swimming. Yes, Emme stayed awake and looved it!!

It's really nice now that they are all big enough to swim around on their own with their jackets on. (Except Emme, of course.) We can just sit in the hot tub and watch them.

There was another Mom there watching her kids swim, too, but she wasn't wise enough to change into swim clothes. Sensing her vulnerability, her two year old waited until his life jacket was off and jumped into the pool, which meant that she jumped in, too. Poor girl! She was dripping wet, as was her cell phone, but at least the kid was all right!

Then we put Emme to bed and watched some tv in our room and made microwave popcorn. Oh, we stayed at Residence Inn, which we love and have always regretted if we stayed anywhere else. We get two rooms, a 24 hour pool and a free hot, buffet breakfast. It's the best!

Kids zonked out.

This is Alaina, singing her "parade song" the next morning on our way over.

When we got to the start of the parade route, it took a minute to find our group. Never one to miss an opportunity, Alex couldn't resist dancing his best Irish Jig, like he saw all the other dancers doing.

Look how huge this Irish Wolfhound is!!

The kids were soo great during the parade (sorry, no pictures) and all walked and waved the whole time and thought it was great. My favorite part was when Alex started yelling loudly, "Merry Christmas everyone!!" I heard a lady on the side say, "Well, it's never too early."

By the way, did I ever tell you that sometimes when we have been driving Tristan has randomly asked if we are in a parade? Don't ask me why he thought we were. At which point Danny slows down the car and says, "Yes,we are! Everybody wave!" and rolls down the windows and all the kids wave and think it was great that we were in another parade. I think all this parade stuff has gone to their heads.

After the parade, we had a big decision to make. It was time to checkout from our hotel room and we would head home that night. But it felt like we had barely gotten there! So, after finding out that if we stayed two nights, we got a free night later sometime, we decided to stay one more night. And I'm soo glad we did. It made all the difference in feeling like a "real trip" and not just a jaunt.

So, we went to the $1.50 theater in Sugarhouse, spent 30 minutes parking, found out the movie was sold out, bought tickets for the 3:30 showing, played at Toys 'R Us,  and then I convinced Danny that in the 45 minutes we had left we should drive to Ikea and I could look around and get some food for the kids. We didn't have anything else to do, so he said okay. By the time we got there, I had literally 15 minutes to go through that whole, huge place. It was like torture. Beautiful, wonderful torture. I love that place, because it isn't just stuff. It's things to make your stuff better. Anyway, bought some of their delicious food and fed it to the kids in the car as we drove back to the movie.

We saw Tangled and all just loved it. The only bad part was that Emme knocked over the whole bucket of popcorn 3 minutes into the movie, so Danny had to get it refilled, and then when he came back someone had to go potty, naturally. And Emme was sooo tired the whole time. I found that the best thing to do to keep her entertained was to let her lean back in my lap and feed me bites of popcorn from the bucket, even though I didn't want any popcorn.

Despite these setbacks, we all loved the movie. It kind of made us tear up at the end, I don't know why. We're just big saps. Alex just couldn't resist the music and went dancing down the aisles. Danny thought we should stop him, until I pointed out that no one cared or noticed. If you look carefully in this video, you will see Alex has made his way through the crowded aisles and is dancing down at the front.

Other kids joined in soon, too and that made Alex even happier. He's so darn happy with music, it tugs at my heartstrings every time. What are we going to do with that boy?

After that we drove around all the massively huuuuge houses up on the hill in Bountiful and I tried to look in their windows as we drove past. The kids didn't think that was very fun, but we did use a whole quarter tank of gas just getting our huge truck up and around the mountain. How do people afford the gas to live up there, let alone the houses?

Then we got 5-buck pizza to eat in our hotel room, at which point we realized that my wallet was gone and had probably fallen out at the theater.

Back to hotel, eat, call theater- Yeah! They had my wallet and they held it until the next day.

Then Danny stayed in the room while Emme was sleeping and I took the other kids swimming again.  All was going well, wonderful in fact, until Tristan started coughing. Tristan should be a super-hero. He could be called "Throw-Up Boy" and puke on you on command. That boy throws up more than anyone I have ever known in my entire life.

So, he started coughing in the hot tub and when he couldn't stop I made him get out, thank goodness. Yep, all over the tile floor. And again. And again, until I got him outside and some fresh air. The lady who dived in after her kid was there, and kindly kept an eye on Alaina and Alex, while I went to the front desk and got tons of sanitizer and paper towels and sacks. Oh, it was everywhere. But at least it wasn't in the water!! The poor guy that had just gotten in the hot tub right before all of this started, got out and left just a little bit after. I kept telling him sorry. He was really nice about it, but I felt bad.

Soon after I got it all cleaned up and sent Tristan back to our room (even though he insisted that he felt better now and wanted to swim more), the other family left. We sure know how to clear a room.

This was after everyone was gone.

  Back to the rooms a while later, as it just wasn't as fun anymore. (I promise, this post is almost over.) Sleep.

Everyone kind of cranky the next morning, which proves that it doesn't matter how much fun you are having or what you are doing, you can still be in a bad mood. We couldn't figure out why they had barely any food at the breakfast buffet, since it was open until 9:30 and it was only 9, and then we found out that it was Daylight Savings Time and it was actually 10 am! Whoops!

Also, while we were eating breakfast we noticed Alex playing with something long and red and rubbery. He was rolling it around and putting it on his face and eyes. I couldn't figure out what it was until I leaned in closer and realized it was an old piece of gum!!! Ahhh! As soon as we took it, he started reaching under the table for another! Danny practically screamed at him to stop. Oh, Alex.

Then we got loaded, drove down and got my wallet and then drove home. Yes, we drove home on a Sunday and missed church, which we really never do, but it really felt like the right thing to take more time with our family. And it was.

We loved being together and having fun and the kids loved it so much. And, we got a free hotel stay, which Danny and I are using in a few weeks to go down by ourselves! Woo-hoo!

All in all, so much fun together and more great memories made!!

Welcome back..... To Me!!

    Ahh... it has been been a long time coming. I am feeling more like the normal me. We have been so sick around here with colds and strep throat and fevers, I can't remember the last time I felt so awful! To put it in perspective, I would rather give birth to Emme again than go through that one more time. Yuck!! And there were two things that made it sooo much worse. 1. Being pregnant (Did you know I am pregnant? Most of you probably do. Due in September!) So all I could take was Tylenol, until I went to the Urgent Care and got penicillin for the strep. 2. This thing lasted FOREVER!!! Not a one or two day and you start feeling better. No, this was weeks of feeling yucky. But, now I am past the first three months of pregnancy and don't feel so much like throwing up if I think about making dinner or grocery shopping and, though I still have major sinus pressure if I bend over more than 75 degrees, I still feel so much better!! And it is great!!
 
     If there is a plus side to being sick, here are the few I have thought of-
 1. There is nothing like being sick to make you realize what a blessing you health is!
 2. It makes you realize how wonderful acts of service are! When one of our neighbors came over collecting money for scouting, somehow as he talked to Danny it came up that I had been sick. So there he was, busy with what he was already doing, and so do you know what he did? Two minutes later he was back over at our house snowblowing the sidewalks and driveway. I almost wanted to cry.
 3. It reminds me once again that we should never judge others, because maybe they feel sick like that a lot and we don't know it. I wouldn't ever get anything done!! Or they may be having mental or emotional problems that are overwhelming to them. You just can't be healthy and feeling well and pass judgment on anyone else. Just love others and serve them.

   So, with feeling better I am still overly tired alot- a possible combination of pregnancy, being slightly out-of-shape, and laziness.  I am hoping and blaming mostly pregnancy. :)  But I have been thinking a lot today about what makes a "good" mother and simultaneously feeling guilty for not being able to help everyone who needs something. What makes a good mother?  A kind voice? Having your children excel in many areas? What about the Mom who can't afford lessons? Or who goes to church every week by herself, without a husband who will come? We just can't all accomplish the same things. So how do you know if you are doing a good job?
  Well, I don't have any answers, but I did pull out my book "Glimpses Into the Life and Heart of Marjorie Pay Hinckley", which is one of my favorite books. And I found this quote that was from a talk on mothering and homemaking that she gave to a group of women.
   "We have to learn about simplifying  our lives. We have to decide what is important and then move along at a pace that is comfortable for us. We have to develop the maturity to stop trying to prove anything, to be what we are." 
   Such wonderful, simple advice. I love the way she puts everything.
 
  She also would gently tease President Hinckley when he would adjust the microphone for her at meetings as she addressed the congregation, "That's why I bring him along."
  And when her oldest daughter cried in despair when her first baby was 6 weeks old that, "I've had it! I'm not cut out to be a mother! I can't do this for the rest of my life!" she started to laugh. "Well, guess what, dear," she said through her laughter. "It's too late!"
   I just love Sister Hinckley and her no-nonsense way of approaching life, always with such a sense of humor. It really changes everything!!
 
  So, that's all of my thoughts for now. Someday the computer will cooperate and download my pictures of our trip to Salt Lake! We had so much fun! But until then, I am curious, what do you think describes a great mother? And how in the world are we supposed to know how we are doing??

Dances and Darlings

Yes, it is true. I did the Napolean Dynamite dance at our Ward Talent Show with 3 other moms. And it was hil-ar-i-ous. Actually, we all thought the most fun was having an excuse to get together and jabber and do a little dancing. The other moms were- Melanie Daw, Reesha Mitchell and Kali Later, probably 3 of the coolest ladies around!! Oh, we had so much fun! The talent show was on Saturday, and we got together for the first time on Monday to try and learn it. Which gave us a total of 4 days to learn it and get all in-synch ad everything. Was it a challenge?? Ha! We're Moms! We can do anything! (Haley was supposed to do it with us, too, but got too sick. :( That was very sad, but I'm sure we'll find some excuse to do it with her. Like at her ward's talent show!!) We all wore our snow boots and Vote For Pedro shirts. When it actually came to the performance, I think half of the people thought it was hilarious and half didn't know what to think!! When it was over, one friend of mine's little 8 year-old boy said, "Mom, that was creepy, creepy."  Success!! It really was soo much fun to practice together and die laughing watching each other and then to perform it all together. On a sad note, Danny actually never pushed record on our camera, and our video camera wouldn't work!! I think this is the curse of my life!! Someone else got it with their phone camera, so the next Monday we had everyone and their families over here (16 kids in all!) and had brownies and ice cream and watched it from their phone to our tv somehow. It was hilarious to watch it for the first time all together. And I had the ratio set wrong on our tv, so we all looked like dwarves!! But it was still so funny to watch. I have to say, I think we represent the wives of some of the coolest husbands out there. They just let us practice away and thought it was so funny and were just cool about it. It makes me snicker every time I remember it. So, even though I still don't have any video, here is a picture of us doing our "fancy hands." You will have to fill in the rest with your imagination and I will keep trying to get a video. I think you will die laughing if you see it.

Also at the Talent Show, Alex sang "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" and did such a great job!! He sang all the verses and was right on pitch. And Alaina and a bunch of other little girls sang a funny version of "I'm a Little Teapot" and all wore their poofy tutus and leotards and were so cute and at the last minute Tristan decided he wanted to sing with them, too. But he didn't wear a tutu. Did Danny get any pictures or video? No. I'm going to have to fire him as my videographer and reduce his overall pay. But, the night was still a hoot and was lots of fun. Also, Alex is going to sing at the Stake Talent Show, so we will try and tape that. But it's not like you haven't seen him sing before. But still, he's so cute when he does it!

Here's a picture of a lady who sang Mele Kaliki Maka and had the bishopric dress-up and dance in the background. Do you see them all wearing their shower caps and hawaiian shirts? Gotta love it!!

A corny picture of Kattie and I laughing while watching someone else's performance.

Linda and two other ladies played their clarinets and did really well. But it was also really funny for two reasons. One, Linda literally had not picked up her clarinet in 20 years until the day before she played. And two, her clarinet was bright green! I didn't even know they came in that color. She's in the middle here. They really did do a great job!!

Silly pictures Alex took of Alaina and Tristan. Every time I download pictures, I have to spend a long time erasing all the weird ones Alex took. And there is always one in there of me looking horrible. That always makes me feel good.

I have been very sick, and so there are a lot of Kleenex boxes around. After I loaded the dishes yesterday, I came into the room to find someone was happily pulling out all of the Kleenex!

Tristan, being a good big brother. Yea!

And some cutie-patootie videos of Emme to show how big she is getting!! She will be one on Sunday!! Oh, when I watch these I want to squeeze all her squooshiness and tickle her twinkle toes!!

Once Upon a Time....

Once upon a time, there was a lovely, wonderful Mother, who loved to take pictures of her adorable children and all of their adventures. Unfortunately, she was held captive by a evil curse, put on her by the wicked Computer Overlords. So every day, in order to share her pictures, she was forced to endure hours at her kitchen chair, downloading pictures on a computer that was invented the same year as the toothbrush. As the years went by and her life slowly wasted away, as all hope seemed lost, she knew in her heart that someday, someone would come and release her from her prison....

So, if I post about Christmas, will you think I'm crazy? I'm only two months behind. I think most of the pictures speak for themselves. And since I have spent most of my morning performing my daily devotions and rituals to the computer gods just to get the pictures on here, I won't spend much time explaining them. Or I may never get caught up!!! 

(This is Emme and Leto, sharing their lunch. ) 

Christmas morning!! Yeahhh!!! We had lots of people, including, but not limited to- our family, Justin, Phillip, Mommy and Doc and Leto. We tried to convince Seth to come, but he was already all planned out in Pocatello. :(   Do you see all the stockings? That was fun!

This is Alex, after refusing any packages that weren't shaped like a Bigfoot box. He knew what he was looking for! And yes, I did comb his hair while we were waiting for Phillip to come upstairs. Danny thought I was silly, but why should I just stand there when I could be brushing their hair?!

 Princess clothes!! Yeah!!

 

 There were lots of people and lots of presents and it was just a really fun time!! Afterwards, we went to the Campbells for dinner and everyone else went to Ben and Linda's for food. It was too long ago now for me to remember enough details. But I remember the kids were all super excited and fun and it seemed like everyone had a great time!

This is the sad part later in the day when we had to tell Grandma and Grandpa bye for a while. You'll notice Alex isn't giving any hugs. I think he just waved and said, "Bye, Grandma!"

So, on to New Year's Eve. We had Chris and Laura and their kids over for a few days, and then on New Year's Eve Phillip and Brock and Kattie and Josh came over, too and Haley and Dallin. We had food and played games and talked and then watched Inception. It was really fun, but we were all so tired by the time we got to the movie!! At some point someone said, "Hey, it's 12 o'clock!" We all just kind of said, "Oh, yeah," and went back to snoozing or watching the movie. But I do wish I had gotten some pictures!!

The next day we took all the kids sledding at Freeman Park. I prefer to call it "Kid Bowling", as that seemed to be the main point of it. No matter how many times we told them to walk back up on the side, they always walked up the middle, and then sure enough, like a magnet to metal- Swoosh!! They would get their feet knocked out from under them!! I tried to get a picture of it at least once, but could never capture it. Too bad, it was funny!!

The human chain- This was FUN!!

 Yes, Alex is wearing pink snowpants. They were the only ones we could find for him. And, it did make it really easy to spot him!

 We all looked rather dorkish in our winterwear, but Kattie somehow managed to still look stylish and rather "magazine photo-sessionish".

This picture is exactly what I remember about Tristan that day. He was all business and would go down all by himself, walk back up and then go down again. He hardly talked or asked questions. (Which, if you know him, is unusual.) But you could tell he was really having fun.

 This is Laura with Avonlea on her lap. It takes a lot of muscle to hold a kid on your lap and keep your feet off the ground while you sled!

Afterwards, we came home and made hot chocolate and lunch. Yummy!!

I think it was the next night, Phillip wanted Danny and me and Justin to go see Tron: Legacy with him at the movies. I wasn't dying ot see that movie, but it sounded fun to go with Phillip, so we got Kattie to come over and be here while the kids were in bed. As we were getting ready to leave, Danny picked up this hat of Alaina's and just being silly put it on his head. Phillip said, "I dare you to wear that to the movie." Well, Danny has some standards, so of course he said, "No way!" Then Phillip offered to pay for his ticket. Then he offered to pay for both of our tickets if Danny would wear it. By now, I was telling Danny that he would just have to wear it, as I couldn't pass up free tickets!! Then Phillip sinched the deal by offering to get both of our tickets and drinks and popcorn. I think Danny would have worn a purple velvet suit for that! So this is how he went to the movies. I could not stop laughing!!

 He got some very strange looks, but the movie was a late showing, so luckily for him there weren't too many people. It was in 3-D, which is always fun, so I had to get a picture of how "cool" Justin, Phillip and Danny looked! Haha! I think next time Phillip comes, we should do it again, but go to a movie that has just come out and is packed!!

 To end, here is a picture of Kittle-Litty, who went missing after Christmas for like 3 weeks. We were sooo sad and missed her so much and called all over and put fliers up. Then suddenly she just showed up again one day, looking fine and all cuddly and snuggly. She has a new collar now, with our phone number on it. Here is a picture of her looking like we felt after the holidays- tired, but happy!!