Christmas Sing-In

I still have a TON of catching up to do... but here is something very recent! 

Check out what Emily's school did for Christmas singing.  She is the one in the front next to the girl in the green shirt.  Emily has a white shirt (duh since all the girls were to wear white) with a light blue shirt under it.  Her hair is in a pony.

All about Samantha

Samantha is a pure joy!  She laughs and smiles all day long.  (Okay so recently she has taken to hitting when I put her diaper on at night, but I think she is trying to be funny.)  She is such a little girl!  She will carry a purse around, backpack, and a baby normally.  She also is very fond of her little doll stroller.  We have had it for years, and I had to recently sew it to fix it since she use to sit in it and it broke so it wouldn't hold a baby without dumping it out when she walked around.  Did I already say she is just a pure joy?  I love her so much! 

She will pretend to go places, she will get her purse and say, "I going to the store.  I be right back."  It is funny because I totally her ME in her little phrases.  I must have said I'm going somewhere and I'll be right back a hundred times.  She is just hilliarous!

Recently she wanted to wear panties.  I was thinking, yeah whatever.  She nearly potty trained herself.  It wasn't long before she was going potty all by herself.  She was just a little under 2-1/2 when she did this.  All my other kids have been more like 3.  I have a friend that potty trains her kids more around 18 months to 2 years, so I knew it could be done.  I just never felt like I had that undivided attention to tend to a toddler potty training.  She still wears a diaper at night, but I have noticed sometimes she is still dry in the morning.  She also still sucks her thumb so when she wakes in the morning, she is super quiet and sucks her thumb.  I think she would go potty in the toilet but because she is still in bed she goes in her diaper. 

The last few days she has also turned into a "big girl" too.  She will climb on the big toilet all by herself, sit on it and hold herself up.  Then Samantha will say, "I BIG huh.  I not fall in (as she shakes her head no).  I use your potty."  She is just hilliarous.  When she is done, she just wiggles back down off the toilet and finishes and flushes the toilet also.  Before she was using the big toilet, she was dumping her potty bucket into the big toilet and flushing it.  Some of the older girls don't even flush the toilet.  Then when she flushes the toilet, she shuts the lid, climbs up on it and washes her hands in the sink.  It is amazing what this little girls will do!

I have failed to video her lately but I really need to.  Her little high pitched voice is a delight.... well mostly!  I could have about 50 of her and be okay I think.  She is great!

About a week ago, it was a crazy night here, Robert was working late or something and I was running around trying to get kids dinner and get myself ready for a meeting.  The kids were having quesadillaa I think for the most part.  Samantha came up to me and told me to turn the TV off.  I was busy and in a rush so I didn't really give her much attention.  She kept following me around and kept telling me something that I wasn't totally understanding.  Then I took a second and gave her the attention she was wanting.  She asked me to turn the TV off so we could pray.  As soon as I turned the TV off, she got back into her chair and folder her arms, bowed her head and started her cute little prayer.  It made me feel bad first for forgetting to have a blessing on the food, and also because I waited so long to really see what she needed.  Lauren was pretty much done already with her food.  Samantha is a great leader!  She does so many things all by herself... somethings she does even the older kids don't do, like flushing the toilet. 

She loves to go to church and be in class.  She loves to be a mommy to her babies.  One morning she was sitting on the couch with her baby and a blanket for her baby and she looked at me and said, "You a mommy.  I a mommy too!"  I think her favorite thing is to laugh and smile... and of course if she has a baby in a stoller that makes it better.  She also loves little animals like some little frogs and snakes we have.  She loves little things.... and I love her!

One of her favorite things is to give me a hug in the morning.  Then I would say, "what is better than a hug in the morning"  then she will give me another hug and I will say, "Two hugs in the morning!"  This then goes on to 3 hugs, 4 hugs, and so on.  She will also do this at night too when I am getting her pajamas on. 

I am sad that soon this sweet little girl will be gone and in its place will be some other phase of Samantha.  I would like to keep this one a bit longer but not sure how I can preserve her at this time.  Perhaps the next phase will be just as delightful.  People talk about the terrible 2's and I haven't seen it really with Samantha.  It also makes me feel a little guilty too because at this age when Amber was 2, I feel like I missed so much because we had a little baby.  Then with Emily I feel SUPER bad because we had 2 babies when she was at this age that I am just in love with.  I can't really go back, I just need to make the best of what I have now, enjoy the stages and phases as they go in and out of them.  It is hard to do that sometimes when life seems so busy.  I sometimes forget to stop and take time to hear the little voices like the one that wanted to turn the TV off so we could pray.

To the USPS

I have been unsatisfied with your service for the last 2 years since we have been in this area.  You have continued to let me down in your delivery services.  Not only do you leave my mail box open to allow my mail to get wet often, you have countless times NOT taken my outgoing mail.  I thought if I put my flag up that meant you would take my mail to the post office so it could go on its way.  Maybe that isn't the same rule here.  I thought that was just standard when the flag is up and there is stamped and addressed letters inside that the mail person takes it to the post office.  Was I misinformed?

Then last week when I had a box delivered with some Christmas presents in it you left it on the road in front of my mailbox.  Luckily I had a great neighbor that saw it and brought it and gathered my other mail that was scattered with it.  He brought the wet box and letters to me.  To my suprise it was the box I was expecting with the contents for Christmas that retailed over $200, and to find out it was just sitting there on the side of the road. 

I am very dissapointed in your services!  If we did have a post office for my city, I would highly consider getting a post office box.  I think you can do better!  I wish you would do better!

Amber's story

Amber has been having a hard time lately.  She wants me to tell everyone her story.  We went to meet a cousin at the mall and Amber kept telling me, "Will you tell him about me?" 

To hear her tell the story it is best, but you will have to hear it from me, the best I can like she tells it. 

The othe day Amber and Samantha were playing tag.  Samantha was running this way, and Amber was running that way and they rounded the courner.... CRASH!  Amber's front tooth smacked into Samantha's forehead leaving Samantha will alittle indent in her head.  Then Amber would also say that Samantha's forehead hit Amber's tooth making it really wiggly.  I didn't tell Amber until alter, but her tooth was bleeding all around the edges of it.  They both fell to the ground crying and I was trying to hold them both and comfort them.  Poor girls!

Then on Thanksgiving, we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house and Amber fell down the basement stairs and got a rug burn on her cheek as she slid down the stairs on her face I guess.  It is looking much better now, but it was bright red and swollen for the first 2 days.  Then it scabbed over and now it is practically gone. 

Once again, Amber got hurt... she somehow just fell down on the tile and conked the back of her head on the tile floor.  I heard this big "CRACK" and looked to see Amber on the floor.  Poor thing!  She was having a bad time for a few days but I think her luck is changing around for her. 

She was so excited to tell everyone about her story of her tooth, her rug burn, and then hitting her head. 

Gotta love that girl!  Bumps, bruises, and all, she is fun to have around.  My camera is giving me problems or I would have gotten a picture of her little cheek.

Stay tuned until I have more time...

So... there has been so much going on here, I will tell you all about it but right now I am swamped with craziness!  Too many things have happened it will take me maybe a year to record it all.  It will take time, but right now I don't have any time.  I will try to find some time soon.  Fun things to come like....Thanksgiving, Lauren's award, Samantha's favorite things, Black Friday, Rob's surgery, new addition, and probably a random photo dump.  Stay tuned to see it all.

Halloween Time

Now that it is nearly Thanksgiving, I suppose I will get my Halloween pictures on here.  Life has been so busy!  The day is over before it starts somedays!

The girls' schools have a Halloween parade where they get to wear their costumes, parents come and get the see all their costumes.  Last year both the girls' school did it at the same time.  I went to Emily's school and then raced to the twin's school to see them finished with the parade.  This year they had one in the morning and one toward the end of the day.  I was so delighted!

Emily wanted to be Cruella DeVil.  She made a good one!  I made her coat the morning of school, and she had a black dress that she wore.  I also made her bag for treats (pictured later).

 Lindsey wanted to be a mummy, I told her I couldn't let her do that for school, because she wouldn't be able to do it herself.  She decided to be a witch for school and then she would be a mummy later.

 Poor, Lauren, I totally missed her picture!  You can see her in the back, like the 3rd person.  She was an indian, but later I found out that was just for the parade. 

 Then for Halloween, Lauren was a witch. 

 Luckily Emily stuck with Cruella, for the parade, the turnk or treat, and trick or treating.

 Amber was an elephant... and she made a cute one.  Except when she was tired and just laid on the floor sucking her thumb. (Notice the 9-1-1 bag, those came from WA as a barf bag because Emily had thrown up the morning we left, if I remember right.  They came from Aunt Lorri but were at my parents house.)

 Lindsey was a mummy... for only trunk or treating.  She threw a fit because it was falling all apart... mostly it was my fault because I went about it the wrong way.  I should have used a stretchy material instead of cutting up a painting cloth that you use to cover things with.  I will know for next time.  Stretchy only!  It fell to pieces as she got in the car, as she moved, as most anything.  Not to mention when it was raining, she wasn't sticking together very well.  I felt bad, and Lindsey was crying and didn't want to go to trunk or treating.

 Samantha was a cute little Dalmation dog, which was suppose to be with Cruella, but somehow I didn't get a picture of the two of them together.  Bummer!

 After I painted Samantha's nose, Amber wanted her nose painted too. 

 So cute aren't they?  I couldn't help but take lots of pictures because they were so cute!

 Samantha loved her tail!  She kept finding it and pointing it out to us.  Sometimes she would even freeze, and say, "where's my tail" as she would look for it.

 Then after the trunk or treat and the mummy costume turned bad, Lindsey decided to be a gypsy.  No one looks very happy in the picture except Lauren.

 I think everyone was ready to go and tired of standing for pictures.  This was the best picture I got of all the girls for Halloween.  Nice huh!  Maybe we will get a better one next year.

 I also forgot to show you our pumpkins.  This is all of them together on our steps.

 This is Samantha's pumpkin, the smallest of the all. 

 This was Lauren's and she carved it herself.

 This was Amber's she told me what shapes and how they were to be for her face.

 This is Emily's pumpkin.  She wanted a small one.... less guts and seeds I guess.

 This is Lindsey's she carved herself except for the glasses.  She wanted a "nerd" pumpkin.  Funny girl!

 This is mine... I can't help but to do a pumpkin with the girls.  I actually gutted two, but a neighbor used one of them.

And did I mention all these and 3 more were grown from our garden?  Nice huh!  Unfortunately those were about the only thing that grew in our garden.  Oh well. 

I got some trees!

It takes so long to get everything all ready.  You plan and plan things out how you want your yard to look.  Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't work out.  I carefully thought it all out how I wanted everything to be, where I wanted this and where that should go.  I have visited the store countless times looking for great deals and things that will be perfect for my yard.

I found 4 trees that I loved, one in particular that I had to have the minute I saw it.  It took some time to get ahold of the right people to get them.  I was so excited the day we picked them up.  4 trees for our yard!  I could hardly wait to put them in their places!

After all my hard work and planning, I think my yard is done!  It is such a accomplishment when you get it all taken care of and it is finished.... well almost! With all the excitement of doing our yard, the neighbor kids wanted to help and so did my own girls.  For the most part it was helpful, but the idea and picture in my head wasn't the same outcome of their helpfulness.

See here it is... my finished yard.....  for HALLOWEEN!

I must admit it looked better at night.

 There's Spiderella!  It was formed after Emily.  I wanted to do another one this year for one of the other girls, but didn't ever get around to it.  I was so busy...  life has been CrAzZzY!

 We covered our lights with these pumpkin buckets.  If only I would have remembered we had 3 with broken handles, I could have used those instead and used these are real treat buckets.  Oh well, they were $.97 a piece.

 This was my FAVORITE tree.  I loved the black bird in it. 

 Would you have guessed these use to be tomato cages?  They are turned upside down.  Then I put lights on them too so after 6pm the timer would turn on these lights and any lighted pumpkins.

 Here's our graveyard... it was so windy, I didn't ever put the grave stones out.  I was afraid they would blow away. 

 We had tons of bugs and snakes on our front door.  The kids even put some on our door bell.  They didn't decorate how I had it all in my mind, but they had fun decorating and it was okay.  I am getting better at letting go of things being done MY way.

 Here's one of our trees that we got... from the garbage pile at the public works building.  Robert that I was crazy!  Perhaps he is right.  "You got dead trees for Halloween?  Why?" 

 This is Jack, he come back every year now.  Him and Spiderella.  The girls told me I put his shoes on the wrong feet.  Ooops!  A neighbor boy told his mom, "did you know that Jack is just fake?"  Kind of funny!

Then I also got some sticks...  I think they were from my trees mostly.  I put them in a pot and we had spiders and snakes and bugs hanging from them.  The girls put spider webs all over them, but I didn't want them that way.  I took most of them back off.

A first for Samantha

This is Samantha after she enjoyed a slice of Amber's birthday cake. You can read about it here.  Isn't she just a doll?  I love her... her little voice, her loving kindness toward others, her imagination, her smiles, the little things she has to do, the way she says "sop" for stop.  Or the way she will shake her head no while she is telling you something, like saying "we color on it" as she shakes her head no, which means to her we don't color on it.  She is so fun!  I could have about 7 of her and would still be happy.

Samantha has always been bald in my opinion.  She has lacked hair from the day she was born.  Now that she does have hair, 2 years later, it is so light it is hard to see.  I have been going back in forth of cutting her hair or not.  It is so uneven but it does make it look like she has more hair.  I was thinking I would wait until she was 3 to cut her hair, but then it might be harder to cut when it was longer. 

Decisions, decisions.  I also was worried that once I cut Samantha's hair, Amber may decide she can cut her hair by herself or maybe even Samantha's hair.  Amber is pretty clever on things like that, and wanting to do things by herself.  I also didn't want Samantha to experiment with the scissors. 

I finally just did it.  Samantha was just out of the bath.  I distracted her with the junk drawer, I put her on a stool so she could dig in there and look around while I put her hair in a pony pretty much and cut her hair. 

This is what her hair looked like before she got it cut.  It was in the middle of her back when you pulled it straight.

This is what it looks like now. 

She didn't even know I cut it.

It still isn't perfectly even, but it is better then it was before and it will grow more even too.  When I told Robert I cut her hair (3 days later) he said he couldn't even notice.  I then showed him the hair and he was suprised. 

Samantha has had her first haircut!  Something Emily had when she was about 9 months old because she had so much hair, and something Amber has never had. 

Time out

Robert had a work function...  "Strategic Planning" I think is what they called it.  They invited the wives or spouses to join in.  Robert and I talked about it and it didn't really cost that much more, since we shared the same room as our spouse, they had food costs and they provided activities for the spouses too so that would have been extra.  I know one employee that was much happier having his wife there during the time, and perhaps others felt that way too. 

We stayed at the Zermmat Resort in Midway.  It was very nice.  They have several different places to stay, they have their main rooms in the hotel, then they have Villas and then resorts I think they called them.  The resorts had garages and all that too.  I saw some advertising on those that you could buy them, use them and rent them out too.  We stayed in the Villas, and they were really nice!  They had a small full kitchen with dishwasher even.  There was a dining area with table and chairs, a living room area with fireplace.  Then the bedroom was off of that.  They had a bathroom with a shower and a dividing door to another part of the bathroom with vanity and jetted tub which were right off the bedroom.  The bedroom also had a patio or balcony depending on which floor you were on.  It was very nice! 

I was very spoiled while I was there.  Robert's company paid for spa treatments, and someone canceled theirs so I ended up getting two.  Wahoo!  Then we got $50 to go shopping in Park City with.  It was fun, and I so enjoyed spending some time alone with my wonderful husband whom I feel like I never get to spend time with.

They even had a little carousel at the resort, and goats...  We laughed about the resort having goats, but they  

weren't outside when I walked up where they were suppose to be.

Here is a rose for my Mom, she loves roses!  It doesn't look nearly as good as her roses when I saw them last.

They also had some geotherm hot pots, is that what they are called?  Perhaps you have heard of the Crater at the Homestead? I guess kind of the same thing.  Basically holes in the ground with hot water in them. 

This little house is for my girls.  Isn't it cute?

 It snowed the first two days while we were there.  Not the whole time, but enough to weigh down things.  This is outside our little patio.  The pool was off to the right of our room. 

They had a pool that was both outdoor and indoor.  At the bottom of the picture you can see a little canal, and that leads to the outside pool.  (The outside pool wasn't very popular.)

The company also paid for us to do an activity one of the days.  It was on Tuesday. (which was Amber's birthday and I was sad to not be there for her birthday)  We signed up for the zipline in Park City but I guess it broke or something broke so it was canceled.  Many of the other activities were cancelled too due to weather because it was snowy and cold.  Golf was off and so was street louge...  which is what we got signed up for after the zip line.  We were offered to go "off-roading" which we went for.  Robert didn't seem to excited about it until we got going.  We went with a co-worker of his.  He was nice enough to take the pictures for us.  Robert went flying through a mud puddle, claiming he didn't think it was that deep.  Yeah right!  lol  We got soaked, and muddy.  It was sooooo cold too.  It was snowing and freezing.  My legs and face where numb!  Thanks to some friends that gave us some hats to borrow and gloves, otherwise I would have been miserable!

 Robert was proud that our vehicle was the dirtiest when we brought it back.  I think we were the dirtiest too.  At dinner Robert noticed I had a little mud mascara still even after the shower.  It is kind of hard to tell, but our faces looked like the windsheild in the above picture.  The guy we went with told Rob on the way back to our resort, "you got a little mud on your face."  We all laughed. 

 On our way back we met one of the other groups off-roading with a flat tire.  We had an extra seat and asked if any of them wanted a ride back.  They declined and said someone was coming to fix it.  After we left we were laughing as we looked at the empty seat... it was covered in mud.  No wonder no one wanted to sit there. 

This was a view shot from our off-road adventure when we were on top of somewhere between Cascade Springs and Midway.

We had a good time.  Thanks to Robert's mom who stayed home with our kids so I could go.  This was the first time I had been away from the kids for so many days besides a c-section hospital stay.  This was lots more fun than a c-section hospital stay, from the room to the food to the activities to the way I felt.

Happy Birthday Amber!

It seems like it wasn't more than a day or two ago and we had this little baby in our arms.  I remember it so clear, going to the hospital in labor, them sending me home.  I was walking around at home in front of my 4 yr old twins, pacing trying to be side tracked, them talking to me telling me things, asking questions.  We still at that point didn't know if we were having a baby girl or baby boy.  Then we went back to the hospital and not long after that I heard Robert say, "It's a beautiful girl!"  He sounded so excited, but I think it was just the joy of knowing my pain was over.  It has got to be so tough on the husbands too, feeling so helpless during the whole labor of birth.

 I was a bit afraid to get attached to this baby before she was born.  With the experiences we had before, I didn't want to get attached, I didn't want to experience another disappointment.  I was trying to NOT get attached, not getting excited about it, just in case things didn't turn out well.  Finanlly she was here, she wasn't going to be a disappointment, she wasn't going to get my hopes up for nothing.  We had Amber Elizabeth.  My Grandmother's middle name was Elizabeth too.  We waiting over 2 years for her,we finally had our little Amber.  She was worth the wait.  She has brought so much joy and laughter to our home.  Of course the other girls loved her from the beginning. 

Amber recently has been asking me to tell her stories of when she was a baby.  I tell her the story of when she was little, she never smiled.  She must have been at least 4 months or more before she really gave me a smile.  She would smile at the bookcase, the ceilings, but never at me when I would talk to her.  I wondered if maybe there was a problem. 

 Then one day, it finally came... she not only smiled but she would start to "talk" and "babble" back at me too when I talked to her.  My fears were eased.  She was the center of attention.  It seemed like we were starting all over again with babies.  My youngest besides Amber was now 4, and it seemed so nice and different to have just ONE baby again instead of two to care for at the same time.  It seemed almost too easy. 

 I was a bit afraid to get attached to this baby as it was growing inside my body.  With the experiences we had before she was born, I didn't want to get attached, I didn't want to experience another disappointment.  I was afraid that maybe it would be hard to have that bond with her after trying to NOT get attached just in case things didn't turn out well.  I had not problems with bonding when she was here.  She turned one and I was very attached to this little girl.  What a wonderful time!  Sometimes she still wasn't very smiley but she makes up for those lack of smiles everyday now.  She is always such a happy smiley girl!

Amber was such a sweet spirit.  By this time we were expecting another baby.  After having such a hard time getting Amber we didn't want to wait too long to get that last baby here.  It was kind of sad for me to think of how different Amber's little world would be once we had that new baby. 

Amber herself, was just a little baby.  She was barely a year and a half and then we had a new baby.  It was like my little Baby Amber grew up over night.  When she came to visit us at the hospital, it was amazing to me.  I felt so sad for her, knowing her life and her attention would be so changed with this new little baby.

 Amber seemed to adjust okay.  She loved her little sister to pieces.  Sometimes she loved her a little too much.  I was telling Amber just yesterday about the time she was kissing her little baby sister's head and she must have gotten a little excited or something and she bit her head.  It was so sad, but who knows what that little girls was thinking.  We celebrated Amber's 2nd birthday with the thing she loves best... suckers!

I still don't always know what she is thinking about.  She is crazy most the time!  I love her so much!  She is that warmth you feel when you are sitting in a sunny window.  You can't help but to be want to be around her.  She is a burst of energy and craziness too! 

I am not sure when it started.  Somewhere between her 2nd and 3rd birthday, but she loves getting her picture taken and she wants to always be in the pictures.  She is so darn cute it's hard NOT to take a picture of her.

 She is also a creature that loves other creatures.  We were driving by some mink farms yesterday and she pointed to them and said, "is that were the living animals are?"  Kind of a funny way to put it, but yes that is I guess where they are.  She is our lover of all.... she likes the spiders, snakes, and bugs right along with all those cute fuzzy animals that most like.  She was our chick keeper when Grandpa brought home like 12 chicks. 

 I could hardly believe it when she turned 3.  Where did the time go?  Did life really go that fast.  My little baby is growing up.  She loves Dora and Diego too.  I remember when the twins were this age and they were in love with Dora and Diego.  I wish time would pass a little slower.  I feel like I am missing too much.  

Amber continues to do these crazy and wild poses for pictures.  When I have the camera out, it is normally because she is being crazy with some sort of costume or addition she has added to herself.  It was hard to choose some of the pictures because she has some really funny ones!  Did I already say she is CrAzY?

 She is a blessing to have.  To think there was a time I wasn't sure if we would have more than the 3 kids we had, we are very blessed.  Amber is such a goof ball, she is so fun to be around.  If you spend anytime with her, you can't help but to love her and want to be around her more.  She is one unique girl.... I love her so much!

I could hardle believe it was that time again, time for her to be one year older.  I knew it was coming but I didn't want to face it!  My baby is 4.  How did that happen?  She wanted a cow cake for her birthday.  I was so excited and was ready for it.  We went to the store to buy black for the frosting and she changed her mind to Mickey.  Maybe because of our recent Disneyland trip, who knows?  She said her next birthday she will do the cow.  I am thinking that won't happen though, but maybe, with Amber she is always suprising you.

I really was sad about the cake, I bought a disposible tin pan that had the little face on it.  It was so not good.  The cake didn't keep it's shape, the face was too big.  I tried shaping the cake and I tried trimming the face.  I would not recommend using their kit.  I would have instead just used a few round pans instead and put them together.  Amber didn't seem to care.  She thought it was great.

So my little baby, or the one whom seemed to be a baby just a day or two ago is now 4.  How did that happen?  I know it happens because I have other children who seem to be a little too old for the time I feel like we have had with them.  I treasure my little Amber each and every day.  She is such a blessing, an answer to prayer, and a wonderful big sister to Samantha.  I love the relationship they have.  I know they will be best friends forever.  Amber is loved by so many!  Especially by me!