Today was Stake Conference and Ryan had to be on the stand because he sang in the choir.  He sang a solo part too and did an awesome job.  The only problem with all of that is I had no other help with the two hour wrestling match of conference.  I tried to be prepared by packing a bunch of file folder games and puzzles, but even my older kids got restless.  What few snatches of talks I heard were excellent though and Ryan's solo was incredible.  We survived it and got out early.  We decided to have our second annual pinto springs outing.  It was great fun.

     Pinto springs has a little stream that is full of crawdads and fish.  The kids love to get in the water and catch the crawdad's and roast them on the fire.  They are kind of like mini-lobsters.  I clearly remember one day when Jamie was little she came in to tell me that her Dad had put a big bug in the sink.  I though she was just blabbing about nothing until I went to wash my hands and met up with a huge crawdad.  They do look like big bugs and Ryan likes to eat them along with the rest of the kids.  Anyhow the kids had tons of fun catching and roasting their crawdads.  Oak tried to chase down a cottontail to eat too, but it was too fast for him. 

 

 

     Ryan cooked us t-bones and crawdads and he caught a fish and threw it on. Oak was disappointed that we didn't cook a rabbit, but hey, we need to leave some animals in the forest.  It was great, but when all was said and done, Chlo left hungry because all she would eat was some cobbler batter.  She also kept removing her shoes and bawling.  I will never get it. 

     Well, it has been a busy weekend!  Jamie and Sage had three different birthday parties, and time with friends, and whew!  I am ready for them to be able to drive themselves to all of their social gatherings.  Jerusha came down with the bug and she was sick all weekend which was no fun for her.  I think we are just about through it though.
     On Saturday we decided to get Ryan's office put together.  A few years ago Ryan saved a garage off of a demolition job and this past fall he poured a foundation for it to sit on.  We just needed to pick up the building and set it on the slab.   Sounds easy, but my brain does not work that way.  Thank goodness Ryan's does because we ran into all kinds of problems that he had to figure out.  My biggest struggle was Chlo.  She kept taking off her shoes and her shirt and then she would bawl and want them back on.  I cannot figure out why you would remove an article of clothing when you are going to need it on.  Anyhow, after much strife, we got the building up.  Ryan will still have some work to do on it, but Jams and Sags were a lot of help and Oak wanted to be a lot of help.  He kept wanting to run the tractor, but it was kind of stressful to pull a building onto a foundation.  He was finally content to ride on the tractor with his dad even though he wanted to do the actual work.

Jazz and Oak tried to make a teeter totter ...it doesn't look too fun.

     Well, it has been a few days because all of my little ones caught Jasmine's virus.  It has been pretty rough.  Moroni was up with it for two nights in a row and Oak and Chloee were pretty restless too.  Thank goodness Ryan took care of the older ones so that I could take care of Moroni because he was pretty high maintenance.  I also got a call that the puppy Ryan had brought home from the ranch possibly had rabies which made for another interesting problem.  He needed to be quarantined for 10 days.  Wow...strep throat germs all over the house and now rabies germs all over the yard.  I felt quite contaminated.
     One of the nights Moroni was a real challenge.  He would kick and scream for twenty minutes and then he would finally calm down and go back to sleep.  I would try to nurse him but he would bite me and in those dark hours (I am really irrational in the dark hours of night) I was sure he had rabies too.  The only thing that worked was wrapping him really tight in a blanket and singing Taylor Swift's "Mean" (why?) while I rocked him really fast in the rocking chair.  Yeah, he acted bright and cheery the next morning because his fever finally broke and he must have felt much better. He was back to stuffing potato peelings in the dishwasher and building mounds out of brown sugar with Chlo. I felt like an insane person for even thinking such thoughts in the night, but he was really acting strange.  Thank goodness we are through the worst of it.
     Oak was having fever dreams too because he had nightmares about a crane picking up our house and throwing it.  He also woke up crying because he claimed that Ryan had been yelling at him, but Ryan was actually trying to get Chlo back to sleep at the time.  He was quite delirious, but out of the nightmares has come an obsession with cranes.  He wants to spend some time with his Dad checking out all of the different types of cranes and their capabilities.  He was also asking to see a hedgehog today.  I am pretty sure that isn't going to happen.
     My parents came over with dinner yesterday and that was a real blessing.  Between doctoring kids and running Jamie and Sage all over tarnation I really felt like I was in way over my head.  Dinner would have been a real challenge last night and I was very grateful for their thoughtfulness.

Chlo sleeping on my step aerobics step while she was sick and Chlo feeling much better!

     Poor Jazzerz has still been quite sick today.  I hate it when the kids are sick.  She has been pretty tough though.  Jasmine is one of those kids who is extremely easy going and low maintenance.  I love my Jazz.
     Ryan was discussing mountain lions yesterday morning.  He was telling me all sorts of facts about how far they can jump and how fast they can run.  I thought it was a very interesting conversation , but I didn't realize that little ears were listening.  Oak and Chlo then became very loud and aggressive mtn. lions.  They snarled and growled and frankly Oak is so loud and pushy with his roaring that poor Chlo just didn't have a chance.  The whole mtn lion game just ended up in a round of bawling from Chlo and a bunch of excuses from Oak.  Sometimes Oak is just too loud.  Today he has been a rooster all day....a very, very loud rooster.  Thankfully it has been a beautiful day and I was able to tell him to be a rooster outside.  I will tell you something, if I really had a rooster that noisy I don't think I would let it hang around my house for too long, that is for sure.
     Jams gave a very good family home evening lesson last night on faith.  In my opinion faith is a choice just like everything else.  We can choose to see the Lord's hand in our lives and recognize the blessings or we can explain it all away attributing our blessings to ourselves or other sources.  She did get to see first hand how difficult it is to keep everyone's attention.  Jerusha had been playing some game and she was still dressed up like Dumbledore or Gandalf.  Her staff (curtain rod) had been left in the floor when family home evening began and Moroni picked it up and began swinging it around during the lesson.  Part of it fell off and hit Rooshkie right in the mouth which pretty much ended the lesson because she was crying too loudly for anyone to hear anything more at that point.  Well, we at least try, and Jamie learned a lot planning the lesson.  Thank goodness for Personal Progress.

Bookoo as Dumbledore...also the nice smudge is simply fingerprints on the lens.  Sage figured it out later.

     Well, we have had a day!  This morning was kinda rough because Jasmine is still really sick and I am pretty sure she has strep throat.  My doctoring of her led us to run late for school.  I ended up putting out some raw oatmeal with apples and brown sugar and Chlo really loved it.  I think it was because Ryan turned his head when she added the brown sugar....it was pretty sludge-y looking.  She went in to get dressed and came out with a pair of ear-muffs on.  Yep...underwear and a pair of ear-muffs.  Please remove from your brain any thoughts of her wearing the ear-muffs in a normal fashion.  They were wrapped around her waist.  This was her idea of getting dressed.
     She came in a little while later wanting a peanut butter sandwich and I was hesitant to make it because so often she begs and begs for one and then it sits there and sits there all day.  At the time I was getting ready to put Moroni down for his morning nap and so I promised her that if she still wanted one when he fell asleep, I would make her one.  I was rocking little Moroni and reading.  I was really enjoying the moment because it is the only time that Moroni is still enough to hold.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Chloee sneak something off of the table and rush down the hall.  It is a good thing I was on to her because she was planning on eating a jumbo-sized bag of brown sugar.  She bawled and bawled when I took it away and just could not figure out why I wouldn't let her have it.  At that point I made her a peanut butter sandwich and all was right with the world for a moment.
     Grandma and Grandpa H spoiled the kids today with a bunch of treats and Mo really liked the peeps.  I must admit that peeps give me feelings of guilt because they are sugar dipped in colored sugar.  He shredded his up and stuck it various places around the house.  The peep that gave me the most frowns was the one streaked down the hall carpet.  I am going to have to use a scrub brush on that one.
     We are enjoying a little streak of good weather and so Sage walked some of the kids down to the park.  Oak claimed that he made a new friend, but could not remember his name and Chlo came in and took all of her clothes off and began bawling.  I couldn't quite figure out why.  Why cry when you have just had a good time at the park?

Notice the ear muffs.  and the brown sugar bag.

Mo Man and his peep.

     One question that I repeatedly ask myself is, "Why, why, why can't I get it together?"  I just cannot make things come together smoothly to save my life.  Take today, for example....I just wanted to go to church with the kids.  That's it.  I realize that my pioneer ancestors left riches and came across an uncharted wilderness to be able to follow their hearts and their religion.  I would just like to go to church.  Well, Ryan chose to chase cows this weekend, and Jazzerz got sick.  So, my idea of going to church together began falling apart before Saturday was over.
     I got up and started making sour dough pancakes at Oak's request.  Sage groggily got up and asked me how we were ever going to make it to church.  She reminded me that we lost an hour and had 45 minutes to be in our seats....not going to happen.  Anyhow, Jams and Sags made it to sacrament meeting and Sage promised to trade me off watching Jazzerz so that I could go to Sunday School and Relief Society.  I went to drop Jerusha, Oak, and Chlo off and noticed that Oak's shirt was snapped wrong and Chlo looked exactly like Krusty the Clown tromping off to church.  I spacily had handed her Jasmine's shoes and she did put them on, but they were way too big and she really did look like a little clown.  I then looked down to notice that my nylons, yep!  Full of stripey runs.  I remember my Grandma Geneal saying that if you had runs in your stockings then you had better walk really fast so that no one could see them.  So, that is what I did.  I pretty much fast paced it between classes so no one could see the tiger stripes up and down my legs.  One of these days I am going to get organized enough to get it together, but until then.......what are ya gonna do?
     It has been a joke lately to try to organize.  Moroni is just as busy messing up as I am cleaning up.  He is the only one more than willing to help with the dishes and he quickly unloads them faster than I can load them.  He then moves on and unloads all of the clean dish rags and towels and if he can he slips an object or two into the toilet when no one is looking.  Today I found a bunch of my patches for Jazzerz pants placed nicely in the toilet water.  In my shoe was some cereal, and some wood scraps.  It is really nice to have him around.

     Jams and Sags had a band and orchestra concert and they did an awesome job.  I am amazed at how much they have grown in their talents at the school.  I am grateful for their talented teachers.  Oak and Chlo weren't too respectful though.  Chlo bawled and bawled and wanted to "pook" (puke) and look at stories instead of enjoying the concert.  Oak asked loudly after every number if it was over yet.  Chlo was also caught covering her ears which was uncalled for, and Oak had to be scooted out of the way so that the choir director could direct her choir.  Whew...between all of that and Mo Mo going sideways it was a wrestle to get to listen.  The orchestra played a difficult piece called " The Evil Eye and the Hideous Heart" that was eerie.  That part of me that likes getting scared really enjoyed it.  The band played a medley from Phantom of the Opera that was really good too.  All in all, a great concert inspite of my rude toddlers.

     We have had a busy day or two since last I posted.  Ryan has been playing church ball and some of the children usually go with him.  The other night Jazzerz was the only one that went and I had made a decision that I would get the baby down and go watch his last game.  When I got there I noticed that Jazz was playing some kind of interesting game.  The problem was that she was walking around in and amongst the players and I couldn't quite figure out what she was doing.  When she came and sat down she explained her game.  She had found some beads in the church building and she used the beads to toss them at different players on the opposing team that she did not like.  Then she had to go out and gather the beads.  I thought it was extremely funny how all of the men just tolerated this game.  I wonder what they thought getting beaned with beads.

 

Do you see her?  What a great game!

 

 

Chlo chlo's new haircut.

March 7, 2013
     Today has been pretty typical, but Chloee came in with a new hair-cut.  We have been trying to grow her hair out after her last butch-job.  Why, why, why would you want to look dumb?  I have asked myself this over and over as I have found my children with their do-it-yourself haircuts.  This is something that I cannot fix either.  Chloee's reason for her hair-cut was that she wanted to look like Oak.  Oak is great looking, but I don't want her to look like Oak.  I want her to look like Chlo.  Also it is a very nice box that she is playing in and she plans on sleeping in it tonight.  We shall see.  It looks too small.


                                                                     
Before                                                                                                                    

     Today I have decided to create a blog because life with my husband and seven children is very interesting and I know I will look back and miss these times that my children are still fairly young and quite hilarious.  Ryan and I got married in 1998 and we always wanted a big family.  Well, trying to juggle them all was easier to dream about, but it is a lot of fun.