Youth Conference 2009

For Youth Conference last weekend, we had a game show night. We had 3 game shows, and each ward filmed a commercial to watch between the game shows. Jim & my dad built this amazing Hollywood Squares set for "Bishop Squares". It was 16 feet tall and a huge hit. We also played Family Feud, and Are you Smarter than a Beehive & Deacon. It was such a fun night, and Jim did such a great job as a host.

My mom & I found him this sweet purple tux in the old costume warehouse. It pays to have family in theatre. It was a busy week. I was pretty much Jim's slave all week. Not that I mind. Youth Conference is the one time of year when him being Stake YM President + me being YW President + 5 kids= chaos & madness. Until next year...

Now I remember

Today marks the beginning of my 2nd trimester. I am hoping to get some energy and motivation back, because I feel DRAINED. I have not had any morning sickness, so I guess I'm lucky. I have been able to hide the pregnancy pretty well until this past week. I find myself trying to suck in, and my pants are feeling snug. The last couple of days I have been exhausted & starving all the time. Jim thinks the baby hit a growth spurt. He's probably right. The kids are sooooo excited to have a baby brother, so I really hope it's a boy. If it's a girl, we will have to convert our loft into another bedroom, and try to squeeze another bathroom somewhere. But, it's a boy, right??? I am still in denial about having baby #6. Am I seriously pregnant? I can't believe I am doing this again...

Back to School

So I'm a little late with my back to school post. The past 2 weeks have flown by. The kids are loving school and their teachers. Yes, Blake's hair is a wreck for the first day of school, but notice the smile on her face.

Check out the crazy shoes.

Dylan's first day of preschool with Miss Heather. She was so excited, and she loves her class.

It makes me sad how big she is, and I can't picture her as a big sister.

Brooklyn's first day of Kindergarten with Mrs. Evans. She LOVES her class and ALL of her best friends are in her class with her. We lucked out. This is the last year I will have all the kids at the same school. Taylor is 5th, Blake is 4th, Lincoln is 2nd, and Brookie is Kinder. Next year Taylor starts Middle School and things will be crazy from then on. I feel like the days are flying by. I'm almost into my 2nd trimester already. Time just needs to slow down.

The rumors are true...

Here's our little peanut. Due in March. Yes, we planned it.

Arizona Vacay

My mom, Carol, me, and all the babies spent a week at a resort in AZ while Jim was at scout camp. It was a nice relaxing vacation. Low maintenance. We mostly just hung out by the pool, and watched Redbox movies the whole week. It was nice to get away. Dad showed up halfway through the week, because he couldn't stand the Grandbabies having fun without him. He got the chance to teach Diddy how to swim, too. He's taught all of my kids how to swim.

I am not skilled yet at making photo collages, so I just have a ton of pictures all in a row. I tried to make the pictures bigger, but I'm not skilled at that either, so I hope they don't look distorted. One day I will learn all the tricks...

What Diddy was saying to this little boy: "I'm big than you 'cause I pooped in the toilet lots of times. Wanna see me go under?"

There was a lake really close by, so we decided to take the kids. We didn't have a boat, so we kinda just went in ghetto style. We found a place to park and let the kids go swimming :)

The kids thought the water was pretty gross, so they held onto Papa most of the time. Diddy wouldn't even go in. None of them would go in without goggles.

This is Diddy at the lake. She was hot and tired. She kept saying she was ready to go back to the room. She was patient while the kids swam, though.

I tried to post pictures of all the kids, but it seems like all I have are pictures of them with goggles on. Silly boys.

The resort had a really fun waterslide. The kids went on it nonstop. Even Brookie...

Brooklyn makes me a nervous wreck when she swims. She swims under the water constantly. Just when I think she's about to drown, she comes up for a tiny breath, then goes back under. She's a little fish, and she proved that she could hang with the boys on the slide. Doing tricks and going down on her knees. She got really sunburned because her sunblock would wash off so quickly with her being under water so much.

We took the kids to the Space Shuttle Challenger Exhibit. The website talked it up and said it was a satellite of the Smithsonian and it had exhibits from the Space Shuttle "Challenger" that crashed. I thought it would be fun to see, since I remember when it happened. Turns out, it is a really lame exhibit with just pictures hanging on the wall. The highlight of the trip for the kids was getting their picture taken in these cardboard cutouts. Kind of a waste of time :(

The last night, the kids wanted to go to BJ's for dinner to have pizookies. So, we drove FOREVER to BJ's, and it was definitely worth it.

"What do you mean the pizookie's gone!!!!"

"Oh, good, Nana still has some left!"

Happy Birthday to this little girl

Dylan turned 3 on August 1st. Since we were on vacation, it was pretty much her birthday everyday. We sang happy birthday to her everyday. One day she got to go to Build-a-bear. Another day, she got puzzles at Target. The kids made a huge deal out of her birthday. It was really cute! I don't even think she realizes that she totally got jipped. No real party or presents :( All she was really concerned about was that she got some cake...

3 things I love about my Diddy:

• She always has a smile on her face. She is the happiest child.
• She is super easy. She plays puzzles and computer all day long.
• She always volunteers to say the prayer :)

What am I gonna do with my baby being potty trained and going into preschool in a couple weeks? Hmmmmm....

Back to reality

The past 2 weeks have been busy, emotional, spiritual, fun, and I don't know what else. It's good to be back to "life". Girl's Camp was amazing. Probably the most spiritual week at camp that I can remember. It was a lot of fun, too. I loved hanging out with the other YW leaders. They are soooo fun and cool and awesome! The girls had an amazing week; life-changing.

Jim headed off to Scout Camp, the very week after girl's camp, so I didn't really see him for about 2 weeks. While he was gone, the kids and I packed up and spent a week at a resort in AZ with my mom, dad, sister, and cousins. It was alot of fun. Pictures and details to come.

I came home to 49 messages on my machine. Half of them were for Blake. Violin & piano lessons today. Plus a birthday lunch and a family dinner and a trip to the gym. My plans of staying home and getting caught up were a bit foiled, but there is always tomorrow which after my Pres. meeting, I just might get something done. I have much to post, but I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm back and I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...life just gets in the way sometimes of important things like blogging, and blog-stalking, and facebooking! :D