Getting Amber to sleep

Why is it such a process to get such a small one to sleep. Tonight was a normal night of getting Amber to sleep. This is typical of all nights. I dread it because it seems to take so Lllllloooooonnnnngggggg! Especially if Robert and I are planning on watching a movie or something after the kids go to bed.

My bigger girls go to bed about 7:30 - 8 or they are suppose to. They don't always stay in bed. Then I start with reading books to Amber alittle after 8 unless she is really tired then we start earlier. Sometimes Samantha is still awake, so I am holding her too while reading to Amber.

Last night I was doing this and then put Samantha to bed and told Amber she could have one more book. (The famous "last one" she always asks for.) I come back downstairs, she has a sweet book "Someday" that we got for Christmas that I just love.... I read this book,

Me: Ok, it is time for bed.
Amber: NO! Last one? (as she starts leaning over the arm of the couch to grab another book out of the book box)
Me: Amber this was our last book.
Amber: No, that was the wrong book. This is the right last book. (holding up a new book)
Me: Ok, but this is REALLY the last one.

I read her ONE more book, then I take her to tell daddy good-night. Then she of course wants something else.

Amber: Last time drink?
Me: Okay. (I fill up her red cup she has been using all day with water.)
Amber: No, I want a blue cup now.
Me: No, you can use this red cup now. Tomorrow you can have a blue cup.
Amber: Okay. (She takes a big drink and is holding her cup)
Me: Are you done? (reaching for her cup)
Amber: (looking around with a funny yet serious face, like she is looking for something) Not quite
Me: (laughing) Not quite? (what 2 year old says, "not quite?")
Amber: I am done now. (handing me her cup)

I take her cup, we head up stairs to put her to bed. I turn on her music which she HAS to have or she will continue to ask for it until I turn it on. Then of course she wants a song.

Amber: Sing Angel by (this would be Angel Lullybye from My Turn On Earth play)
Me: (starting to sing) You came from a land.....
Amber: (interupting me) sing it with Grandma and Grandpa (which basically means she wants me to put them in the song somewhere)
Me: (changing the words to add something about Grandma and Grandpa)
Amber: (interupting again) No, sing little stream
Me: Give said the little stream... (singing the song)
Amber: No BIG stream
Me: Okay, (I change the words to big instead of little and finish the song)
Amber: No do this (as she is clappng her hands together)
Me: (trying to do whatever she is doing and still singing)
Amber: sing Hush don't say a work (this is what she calls Hush Little Baby)
Me: (starting to sing) Hush little baby don't say a word, Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird....
Amber: with grandma and grandpa
Me: Okay (then I change the words instead of Mama's gonna buy you... to Grandma's gonna buy... and Grandpa's gonna buy... switching back in forth between the two. I finish the song.)
Amber: Last time drink?
Me: (getting her the green cup in her room, it is easier to just do it instead of arguing) Okay but this is the last one.
Amber: Sing last time song
Me: What do you want me to sing?
Amber: Wise man. No, follow me. No, twinkle star.
Me: Twinkle, Twinkle, little star (singing)
Amber: No, ABC
Me: A B C D E F G (singing the alphebet)

I finish singing tell her all my good nights, I love you, sleep tights and all that sort of stuff.... and start to walk out of the room.

Amber: Mommy, Sing 5 little monkeys with Grandma and Grandpa
Me: (knowing this is always the LAST song she requests, I decide to go ahead and sing it.) 5 little Grandma's jumping on the bed, one fell off and bonked her head, Grandpa called the dr. and the dr. said.... (she likes to sing with Grandma jumping on the bed and Grandpa calling the dr. and then switch it to Grandpa jumping and Grandma calling... back and forth til the song is done.)
Amber: I love you mommy, good night, sleep tight.
Me: I love you too sweet pie, you sleep tight and I will see you in the morning.
Amber: Ok
Me: I love you!

At last, I am done!! It is now like 9 and the process is over. And yet I realize then what a push over I am and why Amber keeps asking for more and more, because I always (or most the time) do what she wants me to do. But after those sweet "I love you Mommy, sleep tight" it all seems worth the singing and drink getting.

Cookie Disaster

A few weeks ago we had some friends come over for lunch. They brought some super yummy cookies. Then she posted the recipe on her blog so I thought I would try them out. They are maraschino cherry cookies with frosting. They are so great, they are soft and flavorful...mmmm they are great! I normally just make chocolate chip cookies, but they are different and so good.

They call for a jar of maraschino cherries, so I bought a jar and an extra one for making the cookies later. We had the cookies, they were gone in about a 24hr period.

I signed up for a dessert for enrichment night. I wasn't really sure what I would bring when I signed up. Then they called and reminded me (which I am so glad they did, I forgot about it). I then thought about those cookies and remembered I had that extra jar of cherries, so I had everything already.

I started the cookies, then realized I had a dr. appointment for Samantha, and I needed to leave in about 20 minutes, so I really didn't have time to put the cookies in the oven and wait for them to all bake. I decided to stop mixing them, (I had the butter-I substituted instead of the shortning it called for- and then the sugar and vanila all mixed up.) I decided to finish later.

I went about my day and about the time the girls got home from school, I started them again. As I was adding the flour I realized I didn't have enough flour. I looked around for some stored flour somewhere... none to be found. The little girls were both sleeping, and I didn't want to wake them up to go to the store to get flour, and I didn't really want to wait for Robert to get home from work either, since I still needed to make frosting and we had parent teacher conferences starting at 5:45. I decided to rely on my neighbors.

I called one neighbor, and BINGO! I got flour. I told him I only needed 2 cups, since I already added 1 cup. Then when I got home and looked at the recipe (it called for 3 1/2 cups) I got all mixed up or something. Emily was helping me and so I was explaining to her I already put in one cup, and was talking it through with her, and we were using a 1/2 cup so somewhere along the line, we shorted the cookies 1 cup I think. I thought they seemed kind of soft, but I couldn't remember, since I had only made them once.

The cookies baked and got all runny.... I was so upset, these were suppose to be for RS, and now look at them. I was trying to think what went wrong. Then I remembered I used butter instead of shortening, but I have done that tons of times without this end result in runny cookies. I looked at the recipe again and was thinking about what I added in the morning, and then after school, and then after we borrowed flour.... then I figured it out.

These are how runny they turned out, although they seemed runnier in person.

I took the cookies off the pan, and put them on cooling racks. There's no way I can take these to RS!!

With all that, my cookies still didn't turn out great, they were better, and I only have 20 cookies now. I started with 24 that were good after I added more flour, but then when I was frosting them, a few fell apart and one broke when I took it out of the bowl that I stored them in last night. BUMMER! The girls keep eyeing them, and I keep having to watch Amber. All I need is for Amber to stick her finger in them, as she seems to do in all treats like that.

This is what they are SUPPOSE to look like. Before frosting of course.

I always thought I was pretty good at baking, or good enough to offer to bring something anyway! Now I am second guessing my work! And of course, here it is at a new place... uggg! Maybe I will take the bag of Mother's animal cookies (the pink and white ones with sprinkles) that I have stored away in my basement....

Here are the end results of the cookies, once they got frosted. Yummy -or so I hope!

Amber with Hives

When Amber was about 8 months old, she woke up one morning and had a few red marks on her. I didn't think much about it, looked at them and they didn't look like anything bad and there were just like 3. As the day went on, she kept getting more and more red marks. I got on the computer and searched around and then called her Dr. It was hives. There was nothing she ate or anything we changed, I racked my brain on what she may have eaten or got on. We had a babysitter the night before so I was asking the girls if they went anywhere or if they fed Amber non-baby food. I was just puzzled. The dr. said that sometimes hives come after a virus of some sort, and she had the stomach flu a few days before.

This is Amber at 8 months with hives. (notice her funny belly button)

On Monday the girls didn't have school, so they had a "picnic" with snacks and what not. I was busy putting a dresser together... Amber was crying so I got her and she told me that Lauren hurt her. As I looked, Amber had a white spot on her cheek and then as I got to looking she had some on her hand and wrist, and arm.. the more I looked the more I found some. I then figured she was having an outbreak of hives again. Today (after 3 days of hives) she is much better, still has a few spots but nothing like she did any of the other days. She didn't seem to itch too bad, so that was good. I tried giving her Benadryl but she would spit it out. I then started giving it to her in hidden forms, I gave it to her in applesauce and chocolate milk and that worked okay. It is hard to make a 2 yr old eat or drink something if she doesn't want to, so we were sometimes just out of luck.

I was taking Samantha to the Dr. yesterday for some girl problems, and while I was there I of course had Amber and we were able to also talk about Amber's hives while I was there too. I got a bonus that time without having to pay another co-pay! Nice! I don't know that I would have brought Amber in just for hives though. He did say if she still had them after a week, to bring her back. The Dr. also said if they don't seem to itch, there is no real reason to give her the Benadryl, he said it doesn't seem to keep them from braking out, but it helps more with the itch of it. Amber didn't seem to itch them. Although the first day it was funny, we asked her if she itched and she said no... as she was wiggling her pants around and itching her legs. That was about the only day I noticed her even sort of itching.

Amber on Monday with hives....

It seemed like they were worst on her face, poor baby!

She had them the first day on her arms and legs and face...

This was yesterday, she had them pretty much everywhere!


I thought this was a funny comparison Amber and Samantha, both are about 8 months in these pictures.... Look at how bald Samantha is... she is my baldest baby! I do hope she gets hair soon.

Samantha is growing other than her hair... she weighed 19 lbs 3 oz yesterday with her clothes on at the Dr. She has her official 9 month appointment later this month.

It was kind of interesting, with the hives, Amber would go to bed with hives, wake up with none or very few hives and then as the day would go on, she would get more and more till they were covering her all over the place. When they first start they are a white mark with redness around the white area, or that is how Amber's has been. After a while the white mark goes away and it is all red. I just hope she doesn't keep developing hives, she won't like to go to school with hives when she is older.

Feeling guilty

I am feeling abit guilty... yesterday our building was being dedicated at 2:30 pm and I decided to take my nap during that time instead. Robert was sick and didn't go to church, and I was still a little sick but it was easier to go to church feeling a little sick then to try to find someone to teach our class. I am still getting over it, mostly just the cough left and it is worse right when I get up and when I go to bed, so during class I didn't think it would be a problem. About 2 pm I got both Samantha and Amber to take a nap and the older girls where watching a movie. I kept thinking that if I didn't take a nap then, I wouldn't be able to take a nap because by the time I got back, the girls would be awake or almost awake. Not to mention, going by MYSELF, sitting by MYSELF, wasn't really appealing to me. (I am such a whiner!!) After the time passed I was really bummed and thought I should have gone and thought it would have been cool to go.

After feeling guilty about yesterday, then today Linsdey and I really butted heads. She is so.... I don't know how to describe it. She really gets in your face, and she yells, and says really mean things like "I don't even like you" and "you don't care about me" and "all you care about is them" and "you are the meanest mom" and "I wish I were never born" kind of things. She doesn't let things go! She keeps repeating herself over and over again. I didn't go grocery shopping on Friday like I normally do because I didn't feel good and Amber was tired. I didn't want to bother with it. I thought I would go on Sat. but that didn't happen either. Now that we are out of milk, cheese, butter, and have nothing for dinner or lunches for the kids tomorrow, I thought I would go today. The kids are out of school today. When we were getting ready to go to the store then the kids were just fighting with each other. I decided I wasn't going to go to the store with 5 girls, 3 of which were fighting, one that was too tired to stay strapped in and one that was sitting in the back of my shopping cart in her car seat taking up grocery room anyway. I thought, forget it! I am not going!! Lindsey kept yelling at me, and telling me all those mean things, as we went to return a movie that was due back yesterday. I tried to be nice, that didn't work, I tried reasoning with her, that didn't work. I was really thinking of just stopping the car and walking home, but I knew that wasn't fair to the others in the car, nor would it really be fair to Lindsey either. She is such a hard one. Lindsey really pushes and fights. She is constantly saying mean things like "you don't love me" and I know she is just saying them. It does make me feel guilty though, it makes me think about the days events... what have I done today to show her I love her? She even today told me, "You don't even like anything I ever got for you! You use the things that Emily and Lauren got for you but not me!!" For Christmas she got me this dog made out of iron (from Walmart) that had bath stuff in it. I put the dog next to my tub and I always tease the girls about it being my bath guard dog, to keep the cat out of my bath (the cat tries to get a drink out of the bath). Emily was trying to tell remind Lindsey of it, but Lindsey wouldn't accept it. Lindsey just kept asking, "Can we please go to the store?" I kept answering her telling her why I wasn't going to. Then two seconds later she was asking again... It makes me think maybe she has some sort of learning disability, does she really not get it? Not to mention that yesterday, Robert and I both at different times called Lindsey's name while she was about 6 feet away, and she claimed to not hear when we got on her for not responding after we addressed her like 5 times. Parent teacher conferences are Wed. for us, so I will talk to her teacher and see if she does that at school too. After the whole afternoon of Lindsey fighting, I feel guilty of not being a better mom. I always feel like I am not doing enough, as I am sure all moms feel. It makes me feel worse though when an angry child tells you that you aren't doing a good enough job, especially when she says things that I often feel so tender about anyway. After we got home Lindsey stomped off to her room. I told her to go to my room, and I just talked to her and held her for a while. I think she felt better, but I didn't really feel any better about my feelings of failure.

Re-arranging bedrooms

When we first moved in I thought it would be best to put Lindsey and Lauren in the same room, since they share the same clothes, shoes, and all that stuff. They go to school the same time, they go to bed the same time, I just thought it would work good. At our other house, we separated them because they didn't' go to bed really good. They either fought or they played all night. They had two rooms that they both switched back and forth each night, and both rooms where a disaster, one with clothes and the other with toys.

I put Amber and Samantha together, anticipating them being in the same size of clothes and them not having to get up for school right now. Samantha was in my room at our other house so this was a new arrangement. I thought I could keep all the "baby" stuff in there since they are both in cribs and both wear the same size of diapers and all that stuff.

Lauren and Lindsey have been struggling to go to sleep at night, they seem to do as they did before, fight or play all night. Robert suggested to separate them, and I told him no, they needed to just work it out and learn to deal with it. Then I started to notice there was a problem with the "baby room." Amber would go for her afternoon nap before Samantha would, and so when I would put Samantha down, it would wake up Amber. When I would put Amber down and Samantha was still sleeping, Amber would wake up Samantha. I started putting Samantha down for a nap in my bed or in Emily's, although I knew that wasn't a good idea since Samantha crawls now, although she normally just wakes up and sucks her thumb. I didn't want to continue her sleeping on our bed without sides.

I finally broke down and we changed rooms, Lindsey is now the room mate of Amber and Lauren is rooming with Samantha. We got a new dresser for Lauren and a mirror too for her room. I want to separate the girl's clothes too so they have "their own" clothes instead of just community clothes as it has been before. I am hoping this will help the girls be more responsible for their own rooms, since the little ones don't mess up the rooms. Lauren is really good about cleaning her room, and Lindsey seems to be not so good. Lauren on the other hand is the one that takes EVERYTHING out of the dresser to find what she is looking for.

Time will tell how this will work out. After all, it only took me an hour an a half to move around two beds and two cribs and 2 dressers. Although it took me most of the day in small spurts to put together the new dresser since I kept getting interrupted.

Lindsey's $300 paper clip...

Okay so it looks like a paper clip... one of those paper clips that Emily gets a hold of and unbends and creates something entirely different with it. (One time I was doing some payroll stuff and looking for paper clips, the only ones I found where now heart shaped, and they don't go back to their normal shapes to well once they are unbent.)

Lindsey has a cross bite, and my sister who is the expert of the things of the mouth could explain it better I am sure, but basically her teeth don't fit together like they are suppose to. When she was a little girl, I use to think she kind of had a crooked smile, I don't think she does so much now. Basically what I got out of the orthodontist visit when we first talked about treatment is that her top teeth arc is smaller then her bottom teeth arc so they don't fit together like they are suppose to. Which then means her teeth don't line up like they are suppose to and making her chin also not line up with her nose and all that sort of thing.

So this device, which I have no idea what its real name is - I just call it a retainer. is cemented to her back teeth or around them or something. She had to wear spacers (which were little tiny rubber rings) in between her teeth for a few weeks to make space for these metal bands that hold her "device" in there.

She has been having problems eating and getting use to it. After her appointment she got an ice cream cone, which she mostly just held until we got home, since she said she couldn't eat it. We went to dinner last night. She hardly even ate her grilled cheese sandwich, food gets stuck on the roof of her mouth under the bar. We ordered her some soup, but that didn't get eaten either. She requested soft food for lunch today, so I gave her pudding and applesauce... couldn't think of anything else I had I could send her with that was soft and easy to eat. I guess I could have sent her with a tub of frosting, she would have liked that! I would have loved to see the lunch ladies face when they saw she was eating a tub of frosting!! I guess I better go buy some more yogurt for her.

At first she was afraid to talk because she talked funny. The Dr. also told her that no one would even see it or know it was in there unless she showed them. Knowing Lindsey, she will be showing everyone.

The treatment should last about 3 months top, with a few adjustments perhaps and is only $300 (our part) but that was better then Emily's treatment which she is done with now. After Lindsey's treatment is done, she will have a retainer to wear to keep things from going back to normal.

I really hope my girls enjoy and appreciate their beautiful smiles!!

Animal Tracks

I guess it was about a week ago, the girls missed the bus so I drove them to school. Of course it was that day that Amber and Samantha were still sleeping so I had to wake them up to take the girls to school. Amber ended up falling asleep in the car again, so I thought I would just drive around a little while she slept, and Samantha was either asleep too or was being good (I couldn't see which it was while driving).

This is the view from behind our house where we were walking, you can see all the way across the lake as long as the weather is good and we don't have dirty air. The last week we couldn't see the lake at all because of the air quality.

While I was driving, I saw tons of animal prints in the snow. I thought they were pretty cool and then I thought maybe the girls would like to go for a walk and look at them too. That all seemed to be a good idea, and after all, the girls hardly ever go outside to play when it is so cold like it has been.

The girls got ready, I bundled up Samantha and Amber and put them in the stroller (which by the way, doesn't do so well in snow when there is no tracks, and when there are two 6 yr old girls pulling and dragging on it too) and off we went. We didn't have to walk far, there are several houses just behind ours that is vacant and we already found some bunny tracks. Oh, and before we left, we took our rabbit out and put her in the snow to see what her tracks looked like so we could be sure what we thought were bunny tracks really were rabbit tracks. We then grabbed the cat and threw him in the snow too and made him walk back to the house through the snow. We studied those two prints and we were off to look at more.

We saw tons and tons of rabbit tracks, some places there were so many tracks it was actually a trail and it was hard to see what walked on it. We could identify some scat (or poop) on the trail to help us decide what the animal was.

These were really good rabbit tracks where you could actually see the paw prints, normally they were just dashes in the snow like the ones next to the detailed prints. And then the frequently used rabbit trail.

We took some pictures of some of the prints and then looked on line to see what they might be, and to what I could see and to the best of my on-line search, we found coyote tracks and a few tracks of a bobcat. Kinda of cool. Although Emily is a little concerned about the rabbit in our garage if she will be okay or if an animal will come in there and eat her or not. I reassured her it wasn't really all that likely especially with as many rabbits as there are around.

I am no expert, and I was trying to rule out dog prints, which we saw some of that too, but this one was a little different than the other one, but these are my best GUESSES! I should have brought a ruler to measure them, that would have helped. We also saw one kind of like the right side print, but it didn't have the foot overstepping and it only had 3 toes, I searched for what it could be but didn't find anything. Lindsey suggested a 3 toed sloth.

The event itself went pretty good, except for Lindsey who decided NOT to put on pants and were a skirt out and then also I later discovered she didn't have socks on either, so when she stepped into some deep snow that went over her rubber boots (which I told her before we left to wear her SNOW boots) and got inside them, she shortly later complained about frozen feet. Soon after that Lauren was complaining that she was cold too.

Our adventure came to an abrupt end, although Emily and I weren't quite done yet. I am sure that Samantha was getting pretty cold too, since she was grabbing her blankets and pulling them off too. I figured it was time to go home.

Fortune Telling

When we were in Washington at the end of Dec. the beginning of Jan. we all got together as a family to do Christmas. I think there was like 20 kids there, plus some extra friends of some of the grandkids. One of my sisters brought some fun little games or activities to do for the kids.

One of the games was you had to be blind folded and then with wooden spoon and a rubber spatula you had to feel the person in front of you and guess who they were. It was pretty funny to watch.

We were waiting for one more family to arrive, so she said she would do fortunes. She said she would be right back. She came back wereing this crazy outfit and started this whole act of telling fortunes. She took each family one by one and had them sit and she would tell them their fortunes.

This is my girl's fortune. It starts out dark but gets better. It was much longer (even though it is like 5 minutes now) and I tried to cut out some things, but it was hard to decide what to cut out. So here you have it... this is the kind of things that goes on when my family gets together, and now you know why Robert is glad we live far away! :)

Washington pictures...

I thought I would put some of the pictures from our trip up. Most of them are the ones the girls too. I think their cameras are normally pretty good, but I have noticed a yellow kind of tint to the photos sometimes. I think the girls are too close to their target when they take the picture sometimes.


This is Treasure, a horse up there Emily really likes.










One of the dogs from my parents house... Possum








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Megan showing perhaps her true self?

cousin Chloe with big ears...

cousin Julia with stunning eyes, she really does have pretty eyes, but with these new eyes you can't see them.

Uncle Scott, very fitting outfit...

Destiny and her baby brother Parker.

Lauren took about 8 of these pictures with her hands and Samantha's hands... pretty cute I thought.

Grandpa being a good sport.... nice nose and glasses

Aunt Sarah... woah, look at those eyes!

Grandpa with Amber... Amber isn't looking so good here.

I thought this was too cute without the added play in the picture. I had to put the normal picture on here too.

Here is Grandpa's foot with ears, strange things happen at Pony Poop Farm.








Looks like Destiny is looking through the curtains.

Destiny with wings and horns






And this little cute guy was the whole reason for going up to WA. What a cutie he is... all that hair, and he is about the same size as Samantha and he is like 5 months younger!

Here is Thomas (cousin) and Grandpa again...

Amber loved playing with the dogs....

Lauren, Uncle Kelly, and Destiny

Amber with Baby Parker

And I guess that about wraps it up. We had a lot of fun in Washington. The girls got to see I think all of, well minus 2 of their cousins, but they had a great time. I wish we lived closer so the girls could interact with their cousins more often. The girls didn't want to come back home.

The Best Way to Travel

Having family far away, makes us always traveling for hours on end. Normally that traveling is done in our car but Santa sent us some airplane tickets this last Dec. to go to WA to visit our family there.

Every time I am in the car traveling around 875 miles to WA, I am always thinking how much better it would be to just fly on an airplane and be there much quicker, it would be less time for the girls to fight and it would be an exciting adventure.

In Dec. we did the whole flying thing, and I am not really convinced it is better than driving. Imagine... a mama pushing a stroller with a baby in it, a toddler on her shoulders, 3 little girls clinging to their mother half crying and totally whining, 13 pieces of luggage which included 4 car seats all in a crowded airport with lines longer than one would ever hope for. That mama was me with all my little girlies and our stuff in the Portland airport while Robert was returning our rental car.

Remember that with the whole 9-11 thing security measures are increased, once you check into the air lines, before they would take your bags and tag them and then put them on their little conveyor belt behind them and you walked away. Now, you have to take these bags to the X-ray machine and then they keep them from there. The lady from the airline counter asks, "Are you flying alone?" I am dumb founded thinking does it look like I am alone, and come to think of it, I don't think I am ever alone. (Just last night I had a little 2 yr old ask where I was going, I told her the bathroom, she told me she would come too and watch.) Alone is something I won't be for some time I am sure. Luckily when we flew out of SLC we had Robert's parents with us, so they carried the luggage and car seats from the ticket counter to the x-ray place. They also helped hold some of the little kids and what not.

Then of course once you go through security, everyone has to take off their shoes, put them in a bin to go through their machines along with all bags, coats, blankets, and the stroller as well. What a mess.

Our flight out of SLC wasn't so bad. We had Robert's parents that helped so much. We had to park our car in long term parking, which we didn't want to have all the kids and our 13 pieces of luggage ride the shuttle bus to the airport. Rob dropped the kids and I, and Robert's parents and their bags off at the curb side. The kids and I went inside, we had to check in at the counter since we had an infant riding with us on our lap, we had to have a special ticket. So going, most of everything went okay. The girls rode nicely, Amber had some ear problems when we were getting ready to land and wanted some medicine. Emily said her ears were clogged too, but she was much better about it.



Here is Lindsey sitting next to Grandma. Lindsey got the window seat of course.






This is Lauren sitting next to Robert on the plane, again having a nice window seat.

Emily holding Samantha on her lap, the only two kids that didn't get a window seat.

Here is Amber loving her seat to herself and of course another window seat. With Robert's parents most of the kids got window seats. Which they loved.

Once we got to the airport, we had a car reserved, so Robert's parents stayed with me and the girls, and Robert went to get our car so he could pick us up. Again, we didn't want to have the 5 girls, and 13 pieces on the shuttle bus to get the car. That in itself seemed to be a joke. Robert got there to get the car, and there was some problems, he didn't have the right card that he reserved it with, he had switched cards the night before so I had his card and he had mine. The manager suggested to have a shuttle to come pick me and the kids up, and Robert was like no! Not to mention I had been sick all morning. I get car sick sometimes, and I think that was it, it started in the car and then ended up in the plane too. I just kept feeling like I was going to throw up. I had a yogurt at the airport, and that seemed to just make it worse. Finally they drove Robert back to the airport to get his credit card. He finished all the paper work for the car and then came back and got us. Robert's parents stayed with me and the kids the whole time.

Our stay in Washington was great! I got to go see my one of my best friend and her super cute twin babies! (Seeing them brought back so many fun memories and yet also the long hours of no sleep of when I had my twins.) I got to also see ALL of my brothers and sisters, which sometimes I am not able to see them all when I go to visit. I would have liked to spend more time with sisters, but it was still great!

When it was time for us to come back to SLC, we got to the airport a little earlier then needed figuring that to check in and return our rental car, all that would take some time. Robert dropped me off and our 5 girls, and our our luggage. Robert gets two of those smart carts or whatever they are called that you get for a few bucks at the airport to put luggage on. Of course there is only one of me, and I have a stroller already to push, then I have 2 carts FULL of bags and car seats. I try to get the girls to push one, Emily does but the twins are too concerned about being left behind or something so they cry as they push and keep whining and telling me they don't want to push it. "Can't you just push it Mom?" I am so tired and just want to get to the line and then everything will be just fine. Only to find that the line goes past one other airline counter possibly two other ones. I finally get to the end of the line, and then some airport lady comes and says, "We need to move the line over here, so everyone just remember who you are behind..." I slowly move over trying to sooth and talk nicely to my crying and whining girls, while I move a stroller and a cart full of bags and now I am also pulling a little suit case on wheels since Lindsey has decided it was too much for her to do and hold on to the back of my shirt. Of course anyone smart or in a hurry that is behind me in line, jump ahead of me, I am now about 6 people behind. I am not really caring, we made it to the new line and that was accomplishment in itself. Then some nice lady (a totally angel for me really) looked back and saw me, she was the lady that was directly ahead of me before. She yelled back to me, you were behind me. I kind of sarcastically made some sort of comment on I guess no one else knew that or they wouldn't have jumped ahead of me. I really wasn't going to push the issue. The angel sent to me, came back grabbed one of my carts and pushed it up to where she was and said, "no you where here." Then she told the people behind her they needed to make room for me and my stuff. I really wasn't going to worry about it. But man, she was totally heaven sent. I told her thank you, thank you, thank you..... over and over again through the line as she pushed my cart the whole rest of the way. I saw her a few other times in the air port past security and told her again thank you or I would wave and smile to her again. She just told me, "I didn't have anything else to do."

This is when the airline counter lady asked, "Are you traveling alone?" I am thinking HELLO?? She was asking I guess because my bags where tagged and needed to go to x-ray, so she was trying to figure out how to accomplish that. Right about that time Robert showed up. Phew! He carried the bags as I continued to check out. The lady in Portland wasn't nearly as nice and helpful as the lady in Salt Lake. The lady in Portland seemed more annoyed at me than anything.

As if the whole checking in wasn't bad enough. Our flight was late to arrive so we could leave, then because of the snow in SLC, we had to circle while they plowed the runways before we could land adding some extra time on the flight. Samantha was so tired, she wouldn't go to sleep and she just kept crying. The nice thing is Samantha normally just lays down in her bed and goes to bed. We don't give her a bottle to make her go to sleep or rock her or anything like that. She has a really hard time sleeping in my arms or my lap. Robert and I kept passing Samantha back and forth while she cried. While we were circling I finally put a blanked on the floor and layed her on it. She fell fast asleep until I had to pick her up when we were getting ready to land. Amber fell asleep shortly after we took off.

This is the girls and Robert riding the little people movers while we waited for our plane to come in.

Then due to the snow and freezing weather, it took us like 3 hours to get home once we got all the car seats in the car and all the girls and luggage loaded. Funny thing is that there was a package of wipes in the car, I was needing to changed Samantha before we drove home, and I knew there was some wipes in the car. Although they were frozen like a brick. I then had to go dig in the back of the car for the diaper bag for some nice soft wipes. Oh, it was good to be home--FiNaLlY!!

With all the being said, I am still not sure what is better, flying or driving? I before thought that flying would be best, but this whole flying experience has made me think again about it. One thing when we drive, we have our own car and our car seats are in tact. When we fly, we have to bring our car seats along, or rent ones. You can rent them for like $12 a day, which isn't too bad for a day or two, but for a week? When we drive, I also bring all my diapers and formula or snacks that we might want because we have the room. I packed those same things when we flew, which I shouldn't have since it took up more room. I could have maybe not packed 1 or 2 bags due to that. Financially, driving is normally cheaper, but I always thought I would prefer to fly. Maybe I might reconsider that now.... after our travels this last December.

Teaching in Primary

Robert and I in our new ward here for our church was asked to teach primary. For those who aren't familiar with primary, it is basicly the kids classes that the kids learn about God and his son Jesus Christ. There is a set time the kids go into their classes to have a "lesson" teaching about basic principles of the Scriptures. Then there is a set time that they go into a bigger group with some of the other classes to sing songs and talk about the gospel a little more. We as teachers, stay with them for both those parts. We teach them from a lesson book in class and then we sit with them in the singing part as well.

We are teaching the kids who are 5 yrs old that will turn 6 this calendar year. We have about 8 in our class. They are a lively bunch of kids and very talkative. I forgot to get some crayons from the church library and realized it once we got to class. I asked Robert if he could go get them, he said, "Gladdly, I may not be back for another 50 minutes" which is how long our class lasts for. He is really struggling I think. He has a hard time remembering their names so it makes it hard to tell them to stop talking when you can't say Sam stop talking, instead he is like, hey stop, hey you what is your name, stop talking, you have to sit down, and you over there.... It just doesn't work. Not to mention I feel like that is what we do all the time in our own home... just try to have order in the things we do at home.

Robert was pretty excited about it at first, but I am thinking he is having another oppinion now. For an example, we talked about the commandments and how they help us to choose the right. We had a hand out of some commandments on a piece of paper that said different things on street shaped signs like "Obey your Parents" and "Pray Always" kind of thing. We were talking about street signs so I was asking the kids what kind of street signs they have seen before. The kids gave off the wall signs that I have never seen in all my years of being alive. They came up with some weird ideas which I can't remember now what they were. But they were pretty creative with their signs.

I think Robert will do better as time goes. Once he gets to know the kids and loves them too. That always helps to really enjoy and love the kids you teach. Until then, he will be getting all the forgotten supplies and learning to excercise patients.

Finding the perfect gift...

I always have a hard time finding that perfect gift for some people. My girls are normally pretty easy to find something they will totally love. Robert on the other hand, I hate to say, I have stopped trying. One year I saw a brilliant idea in the "Family Fun" magazine. It was like "365 reasons why I love you" is what they called it if I remember right. It was an idea of a reader that wrote in and shared her idea. The reader bought a desk type calendar and then put one reason on each day why she loved her husband. I thought that would be a really thoughtful and loving reminder of how much Robert means to me and how I truly depend on him. I knew he wouldn't really want a desk calender since he has his Palm or he did at the time, and he most likely had some calendar at work on his desk too. So I got a little spiral notebook that I thought would be small enough to sit on his night stand on his side of the bed. I then wrote a little note in the front of it telling him how grateful I am for him and all those heartfelt feelings you normally write in a card for someone you love. I started off the year having a day on each side of the page, so when you opened any particular day it would have for example having Thursday July 7th on one side of the page and Friday July 8th on the other side of the open book. So I spent hours thinking up of ideas, real reasons and crazy things to fill in the blanks a little too. Like, "I love you so much I would go bungee jumping with you again even though I am afraid of heights!" or "I love that you don't sleep with a gigantic pink teddy bear" and then also I wrote in some with real heart felt reasons and things that brought back memories (for me anyway) of us dating or things in our past. I also put all our family birthday's on the calendar and all the holidays. I thought it was a great idea, I think Robert used it up to like Jan. 7th of that year. He did scan through it a bit, but I was rather disappointed in the gift I thought was such a great idea and everything. Well, that is how I feel many of my gifts end up like. I think they are really great and the receiver is only slightly grateful or I come up with some lame unusable gift or some unwanted item. Which then sometimes I think it would be better to not give anything.

This past year I was trying to think of something to do for my parents for Christmas. I decided to have their old super 8 films transferred onto a DVD. Although it was more money than I had thought it would be, once I started I couldn't see not just doing all of it. The films were split into two different time frames I guess. One being my immediate family films (although they stopped making movies shortly after my sister just older than I was born, so I am not on ANY of them) and then there were some films of my mom's grandparents (which were really I think 16mm film). They had tons of film of when my mom was a little girl and her parents and all. It was great to see them.

I went up to WA for my twin brother's blessing of his new son. It happened perfectly that I was also there for our family Christmas party which normally I miss since I am too far away and traveling in the winter is too dangerous in my opinion. Our family typically gathers the weekend after Christmas for their family party. This year I happy to be a part of it since I was up there. We do a grown up gift exchange, everyone brings a gift under a set dollar amount and then we do the draw numbers kind of thing and unwrap a gift or take some one's gift they have already unwrapped kind of thing.

I was trying to think of when I would give my parents their videos but I wanted to wait for everyone else there since everyone else helped finance the project. For the gift exchange I brought a gift bag with some microwavable popcorn, candy, 2 liter of Soda, a jar of nuts, and then I put that Video in there for my mom. I figured who ever got the gift would know it was Mom's and I would give them their copy of their video and my mom would get the one that was all fancied up. My number was 3 so I was trying to debate on getting the movie bag and revealing its contents to get my mom wondering about it. Instead I knew my brother had just wrapped up my sisters new glue gun she just got from one of my other sisters. I chose the glue gun just to stir things up a little and have my sister Lorri wondering if that was really her glue gun or not. (Of course when I opened it she said, "Oh I got one just like that... or is that mine? Scott is that my glue gun?" Yes indeed it was her glue gun, my brother Scott is crazy like that. (Many times for Christmas he would go into my room find a pair of shoes of mine or some clothes and wrap them up for me for Christmas. It was one of those thought, wow, I have a shirt just like this one, wait this is my shirt!)

When my mom's number was up, she went right of the gift bag of my stuff. She knew it was my bag since I got the bag from her Christmas box of stuff. She was sorting through the bag... looking at the soda, popcorn, candy peanuts, and then pulls out this video that says "Frack Family Videos" on it. She is looking at it and on the cover were pictures from the video, some of her and her parents, or her grandparents, or her sister and what not. As she recognized herself in a few of the pictures, she asked me where I got it. I replied, "it is amazing the things you can find on Ebay!" She was still stumped by the video. It couldn't have worked out better, with her taking the bag with the video in it. She finally figures out what the video is of and was just looking at it thinking the whole time from what I perceived.

It turns out in my opinion, this video was the perfect gift! As she watched it, she saw her parents who have been gone for along time, her grandparents, and then her siblings too. It was also perfect too, because when we started the process of the videos I wasn't planning on being there for Christmas, but with my new nephew it all came into play nicely. I was glad I was there to see my mom's face as she watched her movies of her family. I knew I did good at finding the perfect gift this year! Now I have to start thinking on what to do for next year.