This Is The Year

Are you ready for the end of summer?  I totally am.  I have thoroughly enjoyed my summer with my kiddos.  It's been so fun having them all home along with their new baby sister.  I've enjoyed no bedtimes, the sleeping late, the few (but more than normal) lazy days, and even the busy days.  It's been nice, now that Baby Girl is older, to be able to jump in the car and leave the older kids in charge for a short time, while Hubby and I run to the grocery store for a few minutes, or to fill up with gas and grab a couple of drinks at the gas station.  I've loved the flexibility of pushing something I was going to do on Wednesday over to Friday because we decided to take the kids to the park, or go shopping with grandma.  BUT....my late nights and sleeping in, and putting off until tomorrow, has led to an increasingly messier house (okay, that's putting it mildly - it's a disaster!), lots of to-do's being left undone, and basically a growing feeling of chaos...

This is the story of how a plain, boring brown pair of thrift store boots became a fabulous pair of dazzling go-go boots! You may recall that last year Bookworm and Cowgirl were in our school musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat.  Cast members were responsible for much of their own costumes.  For Cowgirl's part, one of the costumes needed was a go-go costume. After scouring the store racks for any leftover Halloween costumes on clearance (because I wasn't about to pay full price and order a costume online), and having no luck, I realized that I was going to have to put together a costume myself.  So it was time to hit my favorite thrift store, Deseret Industries.  It took going back a couple of times (luckily it's near our house), but we finally found a shirt and skirt that fit the bill.  I was hoping for brighter colors, but you take what you can get, right? I was still having a hard time finding a pair of go-go boots.  I wanted whi...

Today I'm linking up with Kenlie for FMM - it's how I first started making friends in the blog world, years ago.  Those friendships are still in place today, and some of them are with friends who don't even blog anymore!  So it's definitely a great link party to be involved with! So here I go...Have you ever... 1. Jumped out of an airplane? Nope. 2. Lived alone? Nope.  I got married at 19.  I went from living with my parents to living with hubby. 3. Met a celebrity?  Yes I have.  When I was 17, my High School's Senior Dinner Dance was held at the Marriot Hotel.  It was durning the NBA playoffs and the Houston Rockets were playing the Jazz, and they were staying at the Marriot.  My girlfriends and I saw a golden opportunity and we jumped into an elevator with Hakeem "the dream" Olajuwon!  He was actually very nice and down to earth.  Friendly, and interested (at least he acted that way) in our school, and our basketball team a...

I'm getting back in the swing of things.  I think.  I've actually got some blog posts planned out, which I haven't done in ages - so I'm thinking the posts will be coming more frequently again! Last time, I told you about our new family business .  We're having so much fun with it.  Some of my long time readers will know that this isn't my first go around with Etsy.  I had another shop once.  Okay, I still do.  But I haven't kept up with it since last Halloween.  Halloween was really the only time the shop ever got very busy.  It's picking up already with some new Halloween orders for this season, so I expect to have some good sales for the next couple of months.  But back to the purpose of my tangent.  I never really invested a lot into the Etsy community my first time around.  I made my items, put a lot of time into photographing and listing them, and then waited for sales.  That only came during Halloween.  Wha...

Wow, it's been quite a month!  In my effort to become a blogger again, I'm linking up with 3 fabulous ladies for 10 Things to Smile About, and Talk To Us Tuesday. Here we go: 1. Our new family business .  The girls and I stumbled upon this new found hobby in an effort to make a Mother's Day gift for my mom. We decided to make a business out of it.  Here are a few of my favorite items: This is my family key chain.  It is my family in dates.  Mine and Hubby's birthdays, our wedding date and the birth dates of each of our children. We designed this piece for my son's friend Sofia as a gift for her Quinceanera.  We've also had this ordered as a "Sweet 16 piece".  I love all our birthstone jewelry. This team set was made for my friend Natalie who gave them to her softball team as an end of season gift. We are seriously having so much fun with this.  The whole family helps get the orders filled and shipped! 2. Um...hello - My ...

her-i-tage n. 1. Something that is or can be inherited; an inheritance. 2. Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition. 3. The status acquired by a person through birth; a birthright. Today in Utah and in the LDS church we celebrate Pioneer Day.  On July 24, 1847 the Mormon Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley.  Pioneer Day is not just a celebration of Mormonism, or of Utah however.  It is a celebration of the religious freedoms sought by those early pilgrims, and again by the Mormon Pioneers, and by others who have been persecuted for their faith, and the beliefs they hold dear.  We celebrate those freedoms protected by the constitution of this great country.  For members of the LDS church, we are celebrating those freedoms which allowed our church to be founded and organized.  For Utahns it is a celebration of everyone, regardless of faith or nationality, who emigrated to the Salt Lake Valley during the pioneer era. ...

I've missed being a blogger!  I need to just figure out a way to fit it in.  Tonight I'm making the time.  Hopefully I'll get better at organizing my schedule so I can make time to blog more regularly. So what's everybody been up to? We've had so much going on.  My son is going to be a sophomore in High School this fall!  I can't even stand it!  I will also have a 7th, 5th and 2nd grader.  I can't really be this old can I?  Luckily I have my sweet Baby Girl to keep me feeling young.  But even she will be 6 months old in a couple of weeks!  How did this happen? We've started a new family business.  More on that next time.  I also received my first Halloween Costume order for Ribbon Blossoms.  Seriously...who plans this far ahead?  Not that I'm not grateful for the business!  I'm just so not organized enough to ever have my kids' Halloween costumes planned and purchased by July! Yesterday marked the one yea...

It's been a while!  Life has been crazy, and busy and good.  But I'm not getting it all recorded because I haven't blogged!  What's up with that? A few notable things that have gone on since I last blogged: Our sweet Baby Girl was blessed in Sacrament Meeting on April 14.  It was a beautiful day surrounded by friends and family.  It was also a little bittersweet.  Baby Girl is the first of my children not to have my dad standing in the Priesthood circle for their baby blessing .  I know he was there, but I still missed having him physically with us.  My little brother was also not able to be there, as he is currently living out of state.  I don't like having my family spread out like this! Baby Girl is growing up so fast, I can hardly stand it.  She will be 3 months old this week.  So crazy! On April 1st I started a fitness challenge and as of Sunday's weigh-in I was down 17.4 lbs!  I still have a ways to go,...

I love this.  I love Him. Happy Easter.

I'm making quite a stretch here for today's PMM.  That's because I want to talk about my other  baby.  Not one of the 5 I gave birth to, but a labor of love still the same. For those who don't know, 7 years ago I helped start the charter school my children attend.  I currently serve on the board of trustees for the school.  In the early years it was like having a full time job and working overtime, only doing it for free.  It takes up a lot of time. I have a board meeting tonight.  I don't want to go.  I get ornery just thinking about it.  It is at our recently opened second campus, which isn't exactly close to my home.  I am a tired mom of a newborn.  Currently a sick newborn.  I don't want to go.  I wasn't planning on attending this month, but some important issues that need to be discussed require all members to be in attendance.  And I don't want to go. It's times like these that I seriously consider step...

I wanted to link up with Emmy and Kmama's PMM last Thursday, but I just couldn't seem to fit in the computer time to get it done!  Better late than never though, right? Thursday was the Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair.  It was the Regional Science Fair for those who had advanced past their school science fairs, and then their district science fairs as well.  My Cowgirl was one of those students and I was so proud of her. She did a really fun project that was called Font and Impact of the Written Word.  She tested 50 subjects on their memories of a list of words.  Different subjects were given the list typed up in different fonts, and then tested on how many of the words they remembered.  The object was to determine whether font type affected how easily someone remembered what they had read.  She had a great time doing it, and thanks for those of you who helped her reach her quota of 50 subjects!  You know who you are.  So wh...

Apparently tags are making a comeback.  Who remembers tags?  I was sorta sad that they went away because they are great when you are stumped about what to blog.  Of course I prefer the ones where you are asked a series of very specific questions, because then you don't have to think at all.  But I wasn't tagged with one of those tags. MiMi did tag me though, (she wanted me to feel like I haven't been forgotten here in blog land).  Here are the rules of the tag: Display the award logo on your blog. (MiMi didn't post it, so I can't.) Link back to the person(s) who nominated you.  State 7 things about yourself.    Nominate 15 bloggers for this award.  (Probably won't get 15, but we'll see.) Notify those bloggers of the nomination by linking to one of their specific posts so that they get notified by pingback. (Ummm...?) So here are 7 things about me: 1 - I hate the way I can't figure out how to copy and paste to my blog without a...

Well life is starting to feel almost normal again.  I could still use some more sleep, but I'm actually starting to be productive again.  Well, as productive as I ever was, which isn't really saying much!  I'm hoping to be able to start blogging a little more frequently and also to start leaving more comment love again! And although I'm starting to feel more normal again, I'm super anxious about my six week check up. Because I cannot. Stop. EATING!  I am soooo starving all the time.  I am always so hungry when I'm breastfeeding, but I swear it is worse this time than it has ever been before!  I have this horrible fear that I am going to step on the scale at my doctor's office and find out that I actually weigh MORE than I did at 9 months pregnant!  And I am being totally serious. The novelty of a new sister has not worn off at all for my kiddos.  They still fight over who gets to hold her first, who has held her the longest, and so on.  I...

I promised my out of state brother I would blog again, and that was a few days ago, so I am a little behind! Baby Girl keeps me pretty unproductive these days.  She nurses ALL. THE. TIME.  Which is actually nothing new for me, since all my kids were like that.  I think it has something to do with being big babies - they need more sustenance.  But I'm okay with that - because all my big babies also slept through the night by 8 weeks.  So it's a decent trade-off in my opinion. She is growing so fast I can hardly stand it.  Even though we thought we were done having kids before we got pregnant with her, now that we have her I want to slow down time so we can enjoy all the little moments of her growing up.  It already seems to be flying by. Here are a few pictures of her cuteness:  Her first Valentine's Day.  In the car on her way to her 2 week check up.  Which she passed with flying colors! Since I spend the ...

Well...she's finally here!  Actually, she's been here for a week as of 8:14 tonight.  I'm sure you can guess that hopping on the blog wasn't the first thing on my to-do list! I woke up last Tuesday morning feeling uncertain whether my contractions were feeling more like real contractions or not.  They were so inconsistent throughout the morning, and I just wasn't sure what to think.  They seemed to be getting more painful, but not closer together at all.  I was starting to feel paranoid because I hadn't been feeling Baby Girl move all day, so finally sometime after noon, I told Hubby we should probably go in, just so I could be reassured about how baby was doing.  At this point, my contractions were ranging from 7-12 minutes apart.  I've never gone in with them that far apart before. To our surprise, when we arrived at the hospital, I was dilated to a 6 and 100% thinned.  Crazy!  My contractions still weren't very close together!  Bu...

Well y'all - I'm still pregnant.  That's right - no Baby Girl yet.  I was REALLY hoping she would come over the weekend so that we wouldn't have to deal with the chaos of finding rides to school, and all the other weekday activities my other kids are involved in. I have had a few contractions off and on, but I'm pretty sure they are still just Braxton Hicks.  They go away if I move around, and are not consistent AT ALL.  Sigh...my very clever friend MiMi suggested that her name should be Patience, after putting us all through this!  I know I shouldn't complain, her due date was only 2 days ago...but we are all ready to meet her! Since she still hasn't made an appearance, it's not too late to enter my Baby Girl Poll .  Even if you already entered, since everybody's guesses on date have already passed, you are welcome to take another shot at it! I have my next doctor's appointment on Thursday if she hasn't come yet, and at that time he wi...

Time to link up with PMM and talk about my kiddos.  Yeah, like I need an excuse. First off - no Baby Girl yet.  I was really thinking yesterday that I might be headed to the hospital by the end of the night.  But then - nothin'.  Which is totally okay, because guess what I haven't done?  I haven't made this baby girl a single hairbow!  That's what I'll be doing today. But today I'm telling you about my OTHER baby girl.  My Monkey.  Seriously, this girl cracks me up.  The stuff she comes up with is just too much sometimes. A few weeks back she climbed into the car after school and was just beside herself.  "I lost my tooth today," she said.  And then bursting into tears she added, "and then I REALLY lost it!".  When I asked her what she meant she told me that she had taken it out to recess to show her friends, and she lost it. Later that night, Hubby came in to show me what he had found in place of her tooth: Side on...