MAYLIN2007

Here are some of the 10 things that I think made 2010. 10. Time at our family cabin. We hiked, worked, floated the river and had camp fires. 9. Jay's business started off very shaky in 2010. The first few months sucked, but it picked up and things are getting back to normal now. Knock on wood. 8. We had a great turn out in our garden. Austin's potato patch was so fun! 7. Kenzie and Jay's trip to D.C. and Austin's trip to Israel. 6. Jay's nephew's wedding. 5. Loosing 10 pounds. Since I didn't get to go on a trip, that is my happy moment. 4. Most of the family read some really good books this year. They were awesome! 3. No major health concerns, hospital stays or surgery/stitches!!! We appreciate the Lord's blessings. 2. We were able to see some of our friends and family this year. We loved that, but missed those we weren't able to see. 1. I loved watching my kids grow to 18, 14, 12 and 4. These ages brought fun new times; high school, Senior year, fir...

Christmas morning started at about 2:30 with Alex asking if it was time to get up yet. We told him no. He again asked at 4. Then Kenzie asked at 5:30. By 8 am Kens was asking again. So we told her fine, get everyone else up. She easily got up Alex, but struggled with Maylin and Austin. Finally at about 8:30, she had them up and they were out to see what Santa had brought. We take turns at our house so everyone can see what the other got. It was great to watch each child. Everyone got a kick out of Maylin. She LOVED her bike and her Barbies. We had our traditional breakfast of Christmas Morning Casserole and cinnamon rolls. It was Yum We then spent hours playing on the XBOX kinect. That techonolgy is amazing. That system is so fun and SO fun to watch!!! Maylin even got in the action, but no one really wanted to be on her team because she wasn't very good at it and she was more fun to watch.I was her partner most of the time. We also put a puzzle together and we went and saw the late...

I have to say that our week of service turned out better than I ever dreamed. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were even better because of our time serving together the days before. We did a lot of great things. I will only share the details of one. On Thursday we made little gift bags with an orange, a banana and some chocolate in each. We tied them with cute ribbon. I made 16, knowing there was an old folks home near-by that had a small group like this. I had hoped a small group would offer my kids more one on one time. We went to each room and left the gift. Some residents were asleep so we just left them, others we said hello to and had small talk with, but there were 2 residents that really touched our hearts. The first lady was named Katie. She was 97 years old! She was such a fireball. Her memory and her vigor were inspiring. She got out her scrapbook and showed us pictures of her as a child and her as a married woman. She showed us pictures of her son who died when he was 4 and ...

YouTube Video Maylin wanted to fly

If you haven't got a card from us this year, its just because I haven't got them out yet. So until then, here is our blog card. Today, I thought about the Christmas spirit I was feeling and decided it was ZERO. I have been too busy to feel it at all. So tonight, I have tried to spend time by our trees, listen to music and we went to the church to have Austin play some Christmas songs on the organ. It helped a lot. Then we met together to make a plan to help us feel the spirit of the season. We listed some of the things the Savior did here on earth. The kids listed: raised the dead, healed the sick, fed the 5,000, worked with the poor and needy,loved children and those who were alone or old. We then made a list of things we could do everyday this week that would represent something He did while on the earth. So one day we plan to go to the cemetery and clean off the headstones (our town's cemetery is small) and then go put wreaths on my grandparents' graves and others wh...

Its not my give-away, but it is a great one! Go to Honeyville Farms - Cookin' cousins blog and check out the give-away. It is awesome. I have used all of their food storage items and regular everyday items for years. Love it! Their dried fruit is amazing and their scone mix rocks!!! Check them out.

Austin celebrated his 18th b-day today! I can't believe it. I am so grateful he is alive and that he is doing so well. With all he has been through it is a blessing. It has been hard thinking that we have an 18 year old. I can't believe he will be leaving the house soon. We got his draft registration card yesterday....that had me in tears. I can't believe my little boy is an adult. He is a sweet adult and I feel so blessed. Monday we had Jay's nephew Jason and his wife over for a Christmas/b-day party. Jason's wife's b-day was just days before, so it was a great combined b-day. We had Rubio's Mexican Grill and we made sugar cookies.!!!     These are pictures of Austin opening his presents tonight. Today, Austin took candy bars to his class and I sent a small cake for him to eat at lunch. Oh yes, I also made him breakfast which only happens on your b-day or on a holiday....okay, not all b-day's either. Tonight after homework was done we went to Costa Vida...

Today at church, Alex pulled me out of my class to tell me he was in the men's restroom when an older gentleman had a heart attack and fell to the floor. Luckily, we have a paramedic in our church who worked on him until the ambulance got there. Alex watched for a minute as this man worked on the gentleman. Alex was pretty shaken up and was scared how terrible the man looked. The paramedic from our ward, didn't think chances were good for him. Alex needed a lot of hugs and we have been talking about it all afternoon. I don't want it to frighten him. I can easily see how upsetting it would be. My sweet little boy!

I used to have a clean house and I was organized....somewhat. But those days are just dreams now. My house is no longer clean for more than 30 minutes and organization is no longer a somewhat, but a what is that? It all started getting hazy back when we got Maylin. Things started to slide a bit as it was difficult to keep up with a toddler and teenagers. I could still do it though. At least, for a day. Now a day is a dream. A dream that I wish would come true once again. I wake up early everyday and I start working and I work at things A.L.L. day long, but at the end of the day it doesn't look like I did one thing. I am not kidding you. I think the difference lately is busier kids, yes, but mainly it is the dog. I am not kidding here. That dog has put an extra kick to my behind and it has won. Seriously. I clean up more wet footprints and accidents than every before. I find my living room/formal dining room is never clean. I couldn't figure it out for awhile. It just seemed lik...

Yesterday, while leaving a most exhausting shopping trip, I am sure those of you with kids have had at least one exhausting trip, I said to Maylin, "You have worn me out." She said: "What did I do?" I said: "You are just young and I am too old." She said: "Yeah. You are old. You are going to be dead soon." I said: "I hope not too soon. I think I have quite a while." She said: "If you are dead, I'll pray for you." I didn't say anything here. What do you say? A few minutes later she said: "I've been thinking. If you are dead, whose hair will I rub? You have the softest hair in the world." I told her I may feel old sometimes, but that I am not going anywhere, anytime soon. She can rub my hair until she is too old to want too.

We went to Idaho to see my family for Thanksgiving this year. The roads were TERRIBLE 60 miles outside their town. What usually takes us about 45 minutes, took us an extra 45 minutes. At one point we went one mile in 15 minutes. It was white knuckle driving. We made it thankfully. The roads home were perfect! We had a great time. My mom and I did the dinner together and my brother and his wife along with one of his son's and his wife came over for dinner. Dinner was nice and afterward we played some fun games like "Find the hidden Turkeys" and a game called "Don't Eat Tom." My sister-in-law and brother both won that game. The night after Thanksgiving we went to my brother's home and ate another dinner with his other son and family and his daughter who were unable to make it on THE day. We had a great time. The kids played and we watched the Boise State game....ohhhh, that ended sad. We also helped my parents put up their trees. We had to take the 'do...

Two years ago we went to a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving. It was so much fun. We decided to go again this year. It was great. There were lots of activities like eating deep fried corn (the settlers deep fried theirs the Indians would roast theirs), hard tack, goats milk, oysters, eel, and duck. These were all at a special tasters table. There were also board games like Nine Men's Morris and The Goose and the Fox. They had corn husk doll making and many picture opportunities. They also had a tug of war and they taught us a dance. Alex was chosen to come up from and help Myles Standish shoot a musket. I still don't have my camera and am using a little point and shoot I bought for one of my kid's Christmas gifts....so I borrowed it early. It was do dark to get a good shot...I was sad.         For the dinner, there were no forks as they weren't invented yet, so we used a spoon, knife and our hands. They had us put our napkins on just like they did then; girls tuc...

We have been busy, busy, busy around here. We are so looking for toward the holiday break. No school ALL next week! Yesterday, was the busiest day of all. I had to get Maylin to preschool by 9 and then I wanted to get to my Zumba class by 9 as well. I was 10 minutes late. Then I had my religion class at 10 to 11. I was 10 minutes late to that too. Then I helped the neighbor lady who has been so sick. Then I tried to clean my own house, but that was tough when it looked like a bomb went off. I was also trying to wash all these donated sheets I got so the ladies in our church could help cut and tear bandages out of them. This was scheduled for last night too. I had to be at the church by 4:30to set up and Maylin had her first gymnastics class at 4:45. I had to have Austin take her. I got home in time to get ready and then left at 5:30 with Alex as he had a football banquet. Austin fed the others when he got home from gymnastics and Kens went to the church later with Maylin to babysit so ...

These pictures were taken before the camera fell to its demise and after we got the dog, obviously. Aren't they so cute?! Maylin just loves the dog. They are buddies....it is more one sided, however. See how she tries to spend every moment with him! Cute.    

I am lost without my camera. It made blogging so much easier, but on the positive side, not having a camera is making me write more feelings and this is my journal so I guess it is a good thing after all. A couple of things to share: Dog: Doing okay. Still lots of accidents, but they seem less everyday. Less is definately good news! Maylin loves him so much that the dog sees or hears her coming and runs and hides. Too much squeezing apparently bugs him. :) He likes me the best. Don't figure since I like him the least. Thief?: Maylin has had, from the moment we brought her home, the urge to take anything from anyone in the family and put it in a secret spot. We have had cell phones vanish for a year before we found that stash, toothbrushes (the other day we found 11 in her drawer...we had been missing so many and replacing so many), wallets, homework, books, glasses, you name it she takes it. It is only from family. I do want to clarify that. I don't want people to be afraid to ...

I have been thinking lately a lot about the words, "The End." I am not sure I like those two simple three letter words. First, I started to think about all the things in my life that end and how I feel at that moment. Most of those feelings are around disappointment and sadness and most don't last very long because they are small items in my life. My thoughts first went to how I feel when I am at "The End" of my favorite dessert, at "The End" of the ice cream, at "The End" of the weekend and to "The End" of a really, really good movie. I thought a lot about when I read a really good book and get to "The End" and how it is a bittersweet moment. I can just picture myself closing the book, thinking and reflecting about how that book changed my life or made me feel or what it taught me. There is a part of me that is so sad that the experience of the book is over. Those are small and simple things I know, but we face those ends...

To re-do or not re-do the chores that were not done correctly, that is the question? Each week we end up fighting at our house over chores. I give the kids a list each Saturday and they have to have the list complete before they can play or do anything fun. Sometimes, things go okay with one kid, but there is a fight usually with the others over doing them at all, or doing them right. I don't think we have ever had a Saturday without a complaint. Today's contention caused this post. I asked one of the boys to clean the living room. When I got home, there were pillows on the floor, papers everywhere and dust. The floor hadn't been vacuumed. The area around items looked like it had kinda been dusted, but not really. I think maybe, maybe, a dry cloth got thrown quickly over the dustable areas. So I called this kid. They had called me (I was getting chicken food) and told me their chores were complete and they left to a friends. So, I called them and told them they needed to re...

Finally....pictures of Halloween. These pictures were taken the day before Halloween thankfully. Because later that day, my camera fell out of the car and hit the parking lot of Costco. It no longer works. It is being repaired. Because of that, Halloween pics were taken by my phone and I am not good at transporting them. Since this is a fear, procrastination takes over and pictures don't get uploaded. .       Jay took Maylin out and the other kids went with their friends or to parties. I stayed at home with my parents who were visiting and handed out candy. Even in the cold and rain we had a great turn out. My kids looked cute and had a great time. Maylin went as a flower, obviously, and Kens went as a pumpkin. Austin didn't know what to do so at the last minute he dressed in the items he had brought home from Jerusalem. The blue dress is Kens', but he borrowed it for the evening. Alex is an assassin. Kens' friend is a zombie. Alex really cleaned up. He got about 8 full...

Yesterday, Oct. 29 my baby Alex turned 12. I can't believe it. He is growing too fast. I am still so grateful that he loves to cuddle, hug me and kiss me. I will enjoy it while it lasts, for I am sure it will be short lived as the teenage years begin in one short year. Alex shares his b-day with my dad. They are exactly 70 years apart! My parents came down to celebrate with us. We took Alex and my parents to dinner at Ruby River. That was Alex's choice and man, it was delicious! We opened presents that night too. The b-day celebration will continue into Sunday as Alex is ordained a deacon in our church. During the day on Friday, I took Alex shopping and to lunch. He didn't have school that day, so that one-on-one time (okay Maylin was with us) was priceless! Alex is such a sweet boy. He is so smart, spiritual, kind and athletic. He really loves everyone. He is my sweetie. I am also grateful for my dad. He is such a great example to our family. He has always been dedicated t...

I am not exactly sure where this week went. All I know is that it went somewhere. I have been jam packed everyday. This is the first moment I have had to think and reflect. First, the best thing that happened this week has been the opportunity to serve. I had a lot of wonderful experiences. The only one I will briefly share is about this sweet girl that lives near me that is in her early 30's and has 4 young kids. She was sick a couple of months back with meningitis. Its after effects have been worse than the actual illness. I have had the wonderful blessing of going to her house each day this week and helping her for 2 to 3 hours. It has been a delight. I was somewhere the other day and I saw this painting on someone's wall of a lighthouse in a stormy sea. It said below it, "The Lord either calms the storm or calms you when the storm is raging." I loved that. I look at this sweet young girl who is really not feeling much peace, but her family is and I am and I am hop...