footsteps

The other night I awoke to the sound of little footsteps. Thinking it was one of my children I called out into the darkness. "Go to bed." No reply. . Still more footsteps and a clinking sound like someone was playing with my dresser drawer handles. So I sit up a little more wide awake confused as to why they were trying to get in my dresser. "whose there?" I ask, still no comment. Now it sounds like they are in my closet. I am starting to get mad. 'What are you doing in my closet?" I ask. When I peer around the corner there is no one there. I am getting a little nervous. I am more coherent now. I hear the footsteps and clinking above my head. Now I hear it on my skylight. What is that? I flick on all the lights and wait patiently for more foot steps. I wait, and wait, and wait. . . Nothing the footsteps are gone. I cautiously go back to bed with my ear tuned to any little tiny sound until sleep overcomes me. I told Scott the next morning. He thought I was a little crazy. He wondered why I didn't wake him. I said I didn't want to bother him if it was nothing. (He's the type that needs his full sleep.) So last night I had put the kids to bed. They were sound asleep. Scott was at the computer, and I was on the couch watching TV when I heard those distinctive footsteps overhead. Quickly I mute the TV. Yep the same footsteps I heard before. I whisper, "Scott come here!" He ignores me. "Scott mute the computer and come here!" Still not hearing me. "SCOTT TURN THAT THING OFF AND GET OVER HERE!!" Annoyed he asks "What do you want." "Hear it? Do you hear that?" "Hear what?" "Just be quiet for a second and listen." sure enough footsteps on the roof. We grab a flashlight and head outside. Point the light on the roof and this is what we see. Quickly I run inside and grab William's airsoft gun, luckily there were BB's in the clip. I take it outside and aim it at the little mischief makers. Thanks to my family's occasionally target practice I hit him square in the face. Unfortunately it was such a week gun it only made him step back and shake his head. So I aim again, and got his buddy. By this time Scott brings out a little bigger gun. Williams Red Rider BB gun that my dad gave him for his birthday. (we didn't uses something bigger because of where we live and we didn't want to have to clean anything up.) He caulks, aims, fires, and bulls eye. Hit the little bugger, then quickly caulks again to get his buddy. Well we got em. They scampered off down the road, and we could hear them "chirping/clicking" as they went. Another reason why you should always have a gun in the house. Even if you live in a residential neighborhood. And yes we are members of the NRA

Peter 2nd birthday

Peter just turned two, and what a fun kid he has been so far. I remember when I found out we were going to have another one I wasn't sure I could handle it. (Brennen took a lot out of me.) I remember thinking that I knew Heavenly Father knew what was best for our family so let it be. His pregnancy was one of the hardest maybe that was because I was older and I already had 3 kids to take care of. I wasn't sure how well this was going to work out. I can officially say that Peter was a GOOD SURPRISE. He is such a sweet heart. He really cares about everyone. He is our most selfless kid. He wants everyone to be happy. One look with his sparkling eyes and sweet dimples will melt your heart and soar your spirits. He is such a good talker. He wants to know everything. I think he gets that from his dad and sister. He is always asking question after question. His favorite question to ask is "whatcha doin'?" He does not like to be left out even if its as mundane as taking out the trash. He does the silliest things like climbing in the dryer. He was having so much fun I couldn't get him out to put the wet clothes in. So in honor of him turning 24 months, here are 24 things we love about Peter 1. He doesn't cry when we wakes up he just says "mommy I wake up!" 2. His dimples. 3. He's generous with hugs. He gives the sweetest ones that wrap around your neck. 4. He says "sorry" if your upset 5.He repeats everything you say immediately after you say it. 6. He is so snugly 7. He loves his daddy 8. He sings 9. His dance moves at any music he hears. Even if its in a commercial 10. He thinks babies are sweet and cute 11. He's extremely helpful 12.He'll stand still for a picture 13. He loves his brothers 14. He is a GREAT sleeper 15. He's easy going 16. Friendly to all 17. He's easy to please (he just needs a woobie and fingers) 18. He knows how to take turns 19. He's very loyal 20. He plays well with toys 21. He is good at sharing 22. His Dimples yes I know I already said that but it needs to be said twice 23.He loves to have his hair done. (He's my only one) 24. He is just so cute

artist

We went to the park for "parkmobile" Something our city puts on for free. 3 days a week at different parks the city has a parkmobile where you can go for free games, arts and crafts, and snacks. This was our first time going. It was okay if you had nothing to do. But I was very proud of Brennen our little artist. He found some chalk and drew Arthur and Buster from the PBS cartoon Arthur. I thought they were pretty good for a three year old. I could actually tell who they were. When I went to compliment him he acted like. Who wouldn't be able to draw Arthur and Buster?

cupcakes

For our annual Relief Society birthday dinner they have a cupcake decorating contest. At first I didn't sign up because I heard comments of "I'm not doing it if Jane Stringham is doing it." I guess It wasn't okay that I won last year. So after comments like that my heart just wasn't in it. But like always I got talked into it. I really need to learn how to say no. Come to think of it I did say no but they kept giving me the guilt trip so I begrudgingly put my name on the list. The truth of the matter is I just had no inspiration. But I felt like I had a reputation to uphold (I know that's silly for me to think that but what are you gonna do?) So after looking at images for what seemed like hours I decided on this type of design. My one boast is that everything was made from scratch so they tasted wonderful. I made the actual cupcakes the morning of the dinner. I left with Amy to do a little shopping and left Scott with the boys. When I came back there were only 6 cupcakes left. I should have known better. Amy sweetly decided to take the kids to the park while I got started on batch number 2. I did chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, with chocolate cream cheese frosting, and marshmallow fondant. I cut the fondant in circles like you would a sugar cookie. I colored a little of the fondant black. Then I rolled the black into ropes and inlaid it in the white. The flowers were gum paste. Luckily I did those the night before because those are time consuming. The finishing touch were edible pearls that just make them look classier. I took them to the dinner but forgot to take a picture so these are taken with my phone. I've got to remember to keep my camera with me. I did not win by the way. But like I said, my heart just wasn't in it this year. So a little word of advice. Go ahead and do everything GREAT once. Then never do it again so you can always end on top.

Zoo with Amy

While Amy was visiting we took the little kids to the zoo for a nice relaxing day of animal watching. We started with the bird show and the boys loved it. Some of the birds flew inches away from our heads. That was pretty cool. The best part was that it wasn't crowded. We checked out the new elephant exhibit. While the exhibit was really nice, it was so big we couldn't see the elephants. That's okay it was good to get out and enjoy the company of family. It was nearly impossible to get a picture of all these boys they were so squirmy and I only had my phone camera which doesn't do great with movement. Peter tried really hard to show his best CHEESE face. He was quite the model.

next round reflections

Well Ellie won another round of Reflection

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with her PENNY story so she goes on to the next round. She was very nervous at the Gala. She was reading all the other entries and came back to me terrified saying, "Mom, I'm up against a 12 grader. There is no way I'm winning this round." She didn't understand that she stayed within her level (grades 4-6) Having said that, the 12 graders story was a well written story about basketball. It was still pretty generic. So I think she would have won even if she was competing against him. I am so proud of our Ellie. She has a gift for words, I hope she uses that to her best ability in life. Of course it would be okay if she wrote a best selling book and took me on a vacation with the money. Keep up the good work Ellie. We Love you.

universal studios Orlando

As I was looking through my blog I realized I didn't post anything else from Universal Studios Orlando.

I love the pictures with the kids in the ball pit. They just look so happy. It was actually an enclosed trampoline filled with balls. Who wouldn't be happy playing in there? I tried to climb in but they said I was too big. It was just for little kids. ah man!

We look back and think what fun we had. Today I told Brennen to go get his shoes on because we are going to the kids club he was so excited and asked "Are we going on the boat mom?!?" It took me a minute to figure out what boat. Then it dawned on me, he thought we were going to the kids club on the Disney cruise.

I had to burst his bubble and let him know that we were just going to the workout center and not the boat. He was quite dejected but he got his shoes anyway.

track

William just started track. He begged me to sign him up so when I went to do it, we had to be put on the wait list. With some friends help and a lot of follow up enough kids dropped out so we could join. I thought he was going to be extatic. He was less than thrilled. He complained and moaned, "Mom, why did you sign me up for that. I don't want to do track."

"Yes you do" I replied. " remember you begged me to sign you up. You said it was going to be so awesome. Remember?

"I never said that. Why do you always do this?"

"Do what? enroll you in activites that you think would be fun? Just try it and see. I think you will like it."

So long argument short he went. He was very sulky until he saw a bunch of his friends from school and church. After that all was well.

He woke up the next day complaining that his legs weren't working right.

He has never experienced being sore before and he thought there was something seriously wrong with his legs.

After a couple of weeks of track he is an old pro. He had his first meet although it was a mock meet. I was surprised that he did better in the longer run (400m) than the shorter (100m)

Something new for me is all the track lingo. They kept telling me all these numbers and I had no idea what they were talking about. Here is what I learned 1500 is around the track 4 times.

400 is around 1 time. 200 is half the track. 100 is just one side of the track. Now I just need to learn the rest of the lingo. They should have given us a handbook when we first signed up.

Beach day with Amy

My sister Amy came to visit for a week and we were so happy to have family come. Sometimes we feel so isolated we just crave the visits. She has two fun boys and the sweetest little girl Lizzy who was always so happy and patient.

We had a nice day coming up so we thought we would hit the beach. We couldn't have picked a more perfect day at the beach. The weather was perfect and warm, not too hot, not to cold, there was no wind, and it was not crowded. Absolutley Perfect. It was so good to get away and forget all my worries and stress and just enjoy God's wonderful creations.

Amy and I enjoyed the serenity while our children chased the waves and rolled in the sand. I love to watch them explore and experience things. It like I'm experiencing them all over again.

The kids had a great time. The older ones went sand jumping, sand crab hunting and sledding. The Southern California version of sledding. (check out the video to see what I mean.) Unfortuately I forgot the sunblock and pore Sam the fair skinned beauty got fried. The rest just got a healthy glow but Sam was bright red. So sorry Amy. I hope it wasn't too painful for him.

The beach is one thing I will miss when we move to Utah. I guess I will just have to go to the lakes more often.

faith

As most of you know we are working on a lot of things right now. Mostly dealing with "moving to Utah" I put that in quotes because there are so many unknowns we just don't know if and when its going to happen. Our goal is still this summer. Keep your fingers crossed.

One thing we are trying to do is lower our interest rate on our current house, so we can rent it out. But its not just so we can rent it out we really need it to lower. Work has been awful! This is supposed to be our busiest time of year and it has been worse than our slowest time of year. We put ourselves on a strict budget, and it seems that the tighter our budget the less money we are bringing home.

The banks keep giving us the run around and I am starting to get discouraged. I feel like they are taking so long to see if we will drop it all together. Just as I am about to lose faith Scott starts telling me how he was reading the scriptures where Moses gets water from the rock. He relates that to our situation. what we are trying to do is hard, very hard but not impossible. Getting money from the bank is like getting water from a rock.

I joke by saying, "Great so all we need is a modern day Moses. Do you think he's listed in the phone book?" Scott answers "No Jane, we just need faith like Moses."

So here istgoes. I am back on the faith wagon. Say your prayers for us.

keys

Okay so I'm doing a little better. I don't know if its because the sun finally came out or because I found my keys. Funny story about my keys. I lost them. I have been losing a lot of stuff lately. I'm REALLY frustrated with myself for not being organized enough. Well it turns out that it is not all my fault. I have a family, and sometimes my loving family try to help clean up, which I love, however they don't always put stuff where it belongs. So back to the keys. I have been searching for my keys for days. I've totally torn my house, my garage, and both cars apart. I've looked in every nook and cranny. I did a grid search in my backyard. I called everyplace I've been in the last few days. Maybe someone somewhere turned them in. . . No luck. Every hour I ask my family "Where are my keys?!?! Have you seen my keys? Will you help me look for my keys?" Not a lot of help there. Scott says to me "Have you looked in your purse?" What kind of question is that? Of course I looked in my purse. I dumped it out twice! Then I was hit with inspiration. (actually I was thinking of the show modern family when Gloria couldn't find her keys. Her husband gives her a hard time about not putting things where they belong. Turns out they were in his coat pocket the whole time, and he didn't realize it.) So guess where I found my keys. In his coat pocket! I was mad and happy all at the same time.

worry

Sorry about that last post. Sometimes it feels better to get things off your chest. The jury is still out on whether or not it helped me. I bought myself some flowers to bring a little sunshine in my house. Aren't they pretty and happy? To explain my behavior we have been totally stressed with making all our puzzle pieces fit. We had a feeling that now is the time to move back to Utah. We feel really good about moving. However I know a family that felt really good about an employment change and they have been super struggling for the past few years with no up side. There is so much stress involved in moving to another state. It is so much different moving a whole family than when it was just me and Scott. When we first discussed it the kids freaked out. We thought they would be totally on board because they miss their cousins so much. We thought wrong. Now I get hate stares and snide comments every time I come into a room. After lots of explaining we finally have Ellie on board but William is still digging in his heals. On top of that we have this house we are in now that could turn out to be a big problem, we are working on it but there is only so much we can do on our side. Many more things are out of our hands. Next item of worry is employment for Scott. After much fasting, prayer, research and deliberation he decided the best route would be to buy a practice outright. That is a lot to bite off. So now we have to deal with 100 % financing for a dental practice. Not to mention finding the right dental practice. Add housing for us in Utah to that. We would prefer to buy a house. Not just any house, a house we would live in for 5-10years. We have found a few that would work the only IF is the banks and financing for it. After moving expenses we would only have enough for a small down payment. Now we could rent for a while to save up more of a down payment but if our current house goes south that would mark up our credit and make our chances of a house slim. I know I have control issues but there are just so many variables that are out of our hands. It seems that everyone else is so busy with their own lives, they don't have time for anything or anyone else. I'm not blaming them I'm just. . . .

frustrated .

SICK

I am so sick of dealing with sick kids. For the past 2 weeks I have been quarantined to the house with the occasional visit to the Dr's office and the pharmacy. If you know me I'm like a caged animal. If I don't get out I pace back and forth. I get major cabin fever, and start to go crazy. It all started with Ellie and an ear infection that involved fever and vomiting. Then William came down with pink eye and a fever. Followed by Brennen with the start of pink eye, a fever, and vomiting. Lastly Peter is stuffy, not sleeping, with a slight fever and just plain whiny. I can't take it anymore!! I am the first to admit that I am not good with sick people. Don't get me wrong I can handle all the clean up that comes with it. Its the sympathy I'm not good at. I can ONLY be nice and caring for about 3 days. After that I prefer you suck it up and suffer in silence. I don't know why I'm that way. Maybe its because I am rarely sick, and when I am its for a short period of time (like 24 hours) Also when I'm sick I don't get time off. I still have to take care of everyone elses needs with no one taking care of me.

Well I'm sick

I'm sick of sick kids I'm sick of whiny babies I'm sick of cleaning up bodily fluids I'm sick of cleaning up my house over and over again I'm sick of dealing with kids not wanting to do homework I'm sick of my family complaining when I make them healthy meals I'm sick of being the bad guy I'm sick of arguing with my daughter about appropriate outfits. I'm sick of being stressed out (That's another story with us trying to move to Utah) I'm sick of feeling isolated I'm sick of people being flaky, lazy and self absorbed I'm sick of misplacing items (my memory if failing me and I keep loosing stuff) I'm sick of the cold and the rain. Maybe I have that SADD disorder I'm sick of worrying.