YIP Week 13

Monday, April 9th

You know that pedicure that I was so happy with last week?  Well I lost all the white part off of my big toe today.  Dang it!  

Tuesday, April 10th

This evening Bump looked out the front window and called me to see what was going on out in front of our house.  I looked out to see 2 police cars and 5 paramedic/ambulance/fire vehicles in front of our house.  I walked out on the front porch and noticed a black car where my mailbox was supposed to be. A very nice man asked if I owned the house and I said yes.  He shook my hand and said that he was the guy who took out my mailbox.  He told me what had happened.  A car had hit a bicyclist and he swerved to miss the accident and over corrected right into our mailbox.  Everyone was ok.  It's always exciting to live on Main street!

Wednesday, April 11th

Quincy enjoying the break in the rain storms while waiting for the kids after school.

Thursday, April 12th

Gabby lost her final front baby tooth, next it's the molars.  She had to leave the tooth fairy a note explaining what happened with her last lost tooth on Easter weekend.  I thought it was so cute that I took a picture of it.  She even taped a baby carrot to the note so the tooth fairy could have a healthy snack on her journey.

Friday, April 13th

My neighbor moved this weekend.  She was an odd thing who could talk to spirits and believed that her house was built on an old indian burial ground.  The indians would talk to her and tell her to find arrowheads out in the field behind our houses.  She made displays of those "arrowheads" and tried to sell them to me.  Interestingly they looked an awful lot like rocks and she had whole piles of them.  She would call us several times to ask us to watch her house because people were constantly trying to break in and were listening to her phone conversations.  I will miss the times that I could mow the lawn and smell sweet smokey aromas from her house or garage that made me feel a little light headed and funny. She hexed other neighbors around us, but we rarely had problems.  I had to take a picture of the signs that she had hanging on the garage over the last month because they made me smile.  I could tell so many stories, but I won't.  I hope she finds peace and happiness in her new situation far away from here.  Hopefully we get some good neighbors soon.

Saturday, April 14th

Haircut time.  I was ready for a change but not too drastic.  I love the shorter length and am very pleased with how it turned out.  People probably don't even notice that I had anything done because I wear it up so often, but I cut quite a bit off.  It was down to my bra line and now it's just below my shoulders.  It's light and nice and I love it.

Sunday, April 15th

Today after church we visited Bump's parents.  Like father, like son.  It was a nice day.

YIP Week 12 and Easter Fun

Monday, April 2nd

I was awake all night last night with little Beth.  She was so sick and throwing up every half hour from about 10:30 pm until 6:00 am.  It made it a very long night, but I survived with a little nap in the morning and she perked right up by later in the afternoon.  Thank goodness!  I just prayed that she would be the only one to get it.  I would hate to have kids throwing up all week long!  

Gabby has been getting headaches and I decided to have her eyes checked to see if that has anything to do with it.  She is right at the point where she could have glasses for reading, but doesn't have to.  I told the doctor we would think about it and talk about it, but that didn't stop Gabby from picking out her favorite glasses just in case.

We had a good Easter Family Home Evening and everyone ate banana splits while they watched an animated Easter story.  I couldn't wait to go to bed!

Tuesday, April 3rd - Thursday, April 5th 

(I can't remember what pictures I took what days)

Everyone was feeling good and the weather decided to cooperate so the kids spent a lot of the day on Tuesday outside.  The older boys took the kids to the park while Beth took a nap and I got some studying done.  While at the park my nephew Conner from the other side of the family met up with the kids and then came home with them.  He ended up hitting things off with the boys and stayed the week with us also.  So, we had 8 kids at our house for the rest of the week.

 Don't let the cool looks fool you.  They had a blast together!  On Wednesday morning Conner W. woke  up at about 6:00 am and started throwing up.  I was kind of at a loss as to what I should do for this big almost 15 year old boy.  I asked if he needed anything and he said no, so I left him alone to get to know our toilet better.  By about 8:30 he went to bed and slept for awhile.  When he woke up he felt fine and other than a headache a little bit later that day he was just fine.  Thank goodness!  No one else ended up getting sick.

 Once in awhile I made them turn off the video games or stop their goofing off to come and help me get  some projects done.  Here they are helping me to redo the chicken pen.  They were really helpful when I asked them to do specific things and I am grateful for that.  Otherwise the week might not have gone so smoothly.

 They even watched the kids for a bit while I had to run to the store.  I spent a bit of extra time away and got a quick pedicure.  I totally deserved it and didn't feel bad at all about doing it without telling anyone.  It was very much needed!

Friday, April 6th

Today the weather turned nasty again and we were stuck in the house all day!  The kids started to get on each others nerves and on mine.  It was nice to send them outside to get some energy out on the nice days.  I saved the Easter egg decorating for today because I knew the weather wouldn't be great.  I spent the morning cooking loads of eggs for the kids to decorate.  They had fun and were very creative.  Then I spent a few more hours making a few batches of potato salad for the Easter party and dinner that night.  

Not only did we have these 8 kids but we had our babysitting co-op at our house tonight.  That was fun!  We ended up having 17 kids at our house and then I was surprised with my niece Sage and her husband Zachary coming by for a visit from Cedar City.  It was a crazy, chaotic, but very fun night with kids running around everywhere.  It's not something that I would want to do often, but it was really fun for the kids.  Even the older boys had fun playing war outside with Uncle Bump and the little boys.

Saturday, April 7th

Today was our Wright Family Easter party.  We took 2 cars and drove Tracy's kids along with our large troop.  The weather cleared up nicely and it ended up being a beautiful day.  You would never know that snow completely covered their yard just the day before.  We kept with our usual tradition of hiding eggs in the front yard for the little guys and out back for the big kids (10 and up).  We had a good turn out.  We had our troop and 2 of Tracy's kids, Jared and his family came, Sage and Zachary came, Tracy's daughter Jessica came with her baby and of course Lee and his family were there.

 After the little kids found all of their treats and went inside to open eggs and chow down on the candy we hid the eggs out back for the older kids.  The only rule is that you have to be able to see it from at least one direction.  Here is Bump giving all the kids a peptalk and letting them know that there are a few money eggs hidden.

Dallin climbed the tree to find a money egg in the bird house.  It took longer for Bump and Zach to get it into the bird house then for Dallin to climb up and get it out. Oh to be a teenager again!

The 2 Conner's were pushing and shoving to get at some hidden eggs.  They ended up smashing one on the ground and just kept on going for more.  The older kids make things a bit more competitive. 

 Gabby ended up under a pile of bouncing kids on the trampoline and got a loose tooth knocked out.  She was all smiles and was so happy that she finally had a tooth that her mom didn't pull out.

 After the party we took JT and Jen's kids home.  The Williams boys had made such good friends with our Wright cousins that they didn't want to stop hanging out.  Dallin and Andrew ended up following us to JT's house to spend the evening with their new friends.  We had worked out with the boys to watch the kids so that Bump and I could go to a movie.  After reminding all these teenage boys that they indeed were babysitting we headed out to finally see the Hunger Games.  It was a great movie and a needed date for us.  All the kids did well and we headed home.  JT and Jen were getting in later that night and I think the kids were happy to be home again and excited to see their parents.  Spring Break is officially over!

 Sunday, April 8th - Easter

Today was a nice relaxing day for everyone.  After church we all took naps to recover after the last few late nights.  When we woke up we decided to hide the colored Easter eggs that we had dyed on Friday.  Bump and I hid them for the kids first and then they hid them for us.  We ended up only missing one of the eggs in the end.  That will be fun to find in the weeks/months ahead!  Overall it was a really fun week.  I was exhausted every night when I went to bed, but I felt good knowing that all of the kids were getting along and having a good time.  I am still trying to catch up with my house this week, but the kids were so good that I can't complain.  Am I glad it's over?  Definitely.  But I'd do it again.

YIP - Week 11

Monday, March 26th

Tonight we decided to get out for FHE and enjoy the nice weather.  I gave each of the kids a plastic Easter egg and told them to find things that would fit in the eggs that reminded them of Jesus.  I told them that they would have to explain why each item reminded them of Jesus.

 We stopped at the gazebo by the fire station and talked about what was in each person's egg.  Quincy had a few things and was just glad to be out walking.  Gabby had quite a bit of different things and her egg was overflowing with beautiful treasures.  Many of them just reminded her how Jesus formed the earth and gave us all of these beautiful things.

 Corban was surprisingly thoughtful about why he chose each particular item.  He began the walk determined to find a nail and he did find one!  He spoke about how Jesus died on the cross for each of us.  It was a nice way to spend a family home evening.

Tuesday, March 27th

Today I cleaned and I was feeling like a bit of a homemaker.  I had 3 brown bananas ready to be thrown out or frozen.  I decided to make banana bread.  It made my clean house smell so yummy (even if it did get a bit overcooked).  Then I got a bit crafty and finished my SPRING letters.  They turned out fun and cute and brought some nice color to my living room.  See?  I was a really homemaker today!

Wednesday, March 28th

Remember last week when the piano tuner came and tuned my piano?  Well, since my piano is over 100 years old a string ended up breaking while she was tuning it.  She hadn't ever replaced a string before and didn't want to practice on me without help.  So, she called in an expert so she could watch him and know what to do for future spring breakage.  Tonight she came with a nice guy, Mr. Butcher, and they fixed my string.  It was quick and easy and I am glad it's done and my piano sounds pretty dang good for such an old thing.

Thursday, March 29th

Again, I am getting things accomplished.  I have needed to do this for weeks (since I painted my dining room) and today I just did it!  I painted my stairwell.  This first picture is when I remembered to take a "before" picture after I already began cutting in so you can see the before and after colors together.  Notice the many patches on the walls that have been patched and waiting for many, many months.

 And here is is after I finished.  This is at the bottom of the stairs just to show my mom the white trim that I freehanded since it's flush with the wall.  I used the same color that I used in the dining room and just carried it up the stairs.

 And here is the finished stairwell!  Yay!  No more patches, scratches or discolored parts.  It looks really good, but not really different.  Bump didn't even notice until I pointed it out to him, and that's okay!  Next I want to paint the upstairs railing white.  

 After painting the kids and I went on a walk.  We found this cool tree in our neighbors yard and the kids just had to get their picture taken in it.  I love these kids!

Friday, March 30th

Gabby is such a good student!  I am really proud of the hard work she puts in and with the grades that she continues to get.  I didn't think that times tables started until 3rd grade, but apparently they start at the end of 2nd grade.  Today Gabby was rewarded for passing off her 5's times tables.  Way to go Gabby!

Saturday, March 31st

Last night we had cousins show up.  We will have them for the next week during spring break.  We are having so much fun!  I love that these two have the same fake, forced smile.  :)  They played hard today while we worked hard in the yard.  We took a couple of loads to the dump and it was a nice way to start our spring clean up.

This won't look good to anybody but me.  I know how quickly this vine fills back in and will turn this weedy looking fence back into a beautiful green wall, but without all the crispy leaves and garbage hiding within it.  And I can see the window on my garage again after 3 years!

Sunday, April 1st

This weekend is General Conference.  I got to hear a bit on Saturday and the kids actually did pretty dang good about letting us watch it today.  I loved the uplifting talks.  They just help me want to be better.  I did my usual April Fools joke on the kids by switching their cereal into the wrong boxes.  Mother Nature did the best April Fools joke by giving us some snow today after a few days of 70 degree weather.  We also celebrated Fin's 2nd birthday by giving him the bone from our pork roast.  He was very excited and I am sure he knew that it was his birthday.  He's a pretty smart dog.  Maybe he'll get groomed this week for another present.