Summertime

Here are a few pictures of summertime at our house. These are Roma Tomatoes. Our neighbors went on a mission for a year and left us the use of their garden plot, 3 peach trees, an apricot tree, apple tree, walnut trees, and raspberry bushes.We planted 12 tomato plants and peppers. It was an experience.They were so kind to let us use their fruit.I learned a lot about canning and actually enjoyed it.

We love the shade of summertime in our yard. Moving from AZ/new home/no shade to here UT/old home/tons of shady trees was so nice.The old house is hard to get used to and annoying at times.....example: our master bedroom here is the size of our master bathroom in AZ!(:

We have a great fireworks display in our backyard every 4th of July and Pleasant Views Founders Day. We have had 50+ people in our yard to watch them. They are shot off at the high school less than a mile down the hill so we have a great view! Our good friends the Lyon's and the Taylor's came from CO to visit this summer on Founders Day.They have 6 boys and 1 girl between the 2 families. All of the big kids camped in the backyard for the couple days they were here and we had a great time.Boy Boys Boys everywhere!

Joy School

I know all of theses post are out of order, but I thought since I missed a whole year of blogging I might as well post pictures from things we did this past year.

This is a field trip we took in Joy School to my friends farm.The colors on the mountains were so beautiful.Johnny is in the middle on the wagon,Adam on the tractor,and Adam on the trampoline with his friend.

Shark Boy

Any of you young Mom's out there get talked into buying this shark costume on clearance after Halloween? I did! Adam saw it at WalMart for $2.00 and talked his dear old mom into it. He wore it for at least four days at first and now will not insist on wearing it to bed. Note: the teeth under his chin.

Angel

It took a few tries and a few different kids before we got the angel up, but here it is.

Setting up the tree

We finally set up our Christmas tree today. I know the 22nd might seem horribly late in December to most of you, but to any soul who has ever had the blessing of 2 boys born 11 months apart......you understand why.

A you can tell, the kids did all of the decorating(note the ribbons and beads) and the "parent fixing" session hasn't happened yet. I usually do that at night after they are asleep.(:

Steven, Ryan, and I took the trek out to the back storage shed to get the xmas boxes. At times the snow was almost up to my knees.They were such good sports and never complained.It was freezing.

The bottom picture is of the frozen waterfall/pond.

Neglect

Chris just notified me that I am NOT allowed to NEGLECT the house and kids JUST because he showed me how to write on the blog for all of you to read.(: ha ha He is threatening to change the password if I don't fill up John and Adam's water dishes. kidding....they do drink out of cups now.(: Don't waste the phone call to child protective services.They just had a healthy breakfast of an assortment of cookies from the "cookie exchange" the other night in my neighborhood. So technically they had eggs, milk, peanut butter, RICE krispies,nuts, pumpkin etc.
Well John has just disassembled the bottom grate on the fridge once again and is using it as a gun. Lovely. Gotta run.Literally!

So glad there is NO SCHOOL

When I woke up this morning I was so glad there is NO SCHOOL today! We live within a mile of the school so I have to carpool everyday instead of the bus. If it snows I have to drive because my friend does not have 4 wheel drive and she can't get up her steep road to get to my house.

If you live up here you MUST have 4 wheel drive or you will end up parking your car wherever it slides to a stop at and walking up the hill to your house. Last Thursday we had multiple cars stuck in front of our house and people having to get out and walk home. Chris' car got stuck(front wheel drive) down the hill a bit along with others. He walked up and got in the suburban and took Katie to her concert where she was singing. The rest of us stayed here just to make it less complicated. While he was gone a LIMO (Suburban style) came past his car (on the side of the road) and lost traction and slid backwards slowly until it rested on his driver side door in a t-bone position blocking the lane of the road. It was crazy.No damage was done, but it was a comical night with 12 cars stuck in the stretch of road spanning three homes. My neighbor was kind enough to try to roll Chris' car backwards so the Limo had room to rock back and forth and get some traction to clear the road. My neighbor ended up sliding all over the road in Chris' car and doing about three donuts and hitting another neighbors mailbox and ended up facing the wrong direction.Luckily it was not a brick mailbox and did no damage to the car. There were grown adults falling on their butts. We all just had to laugh.The Limo had to end up backing down the hill slowly with the help of the police. SSSSSSoooooooo......long story short, I am glad I am not loading up my kids plus 3 extras to go to school. We have to dig Chris' car out this morning because he barely made it into our driveway after a couple attempts last night and got stuck halfway in. Oh, the joys of snow. It is so beautiful though...from inside the house by the fireplace.

Having not grown up with snow at all it is interesting to live in it.Most of our neighbors are snow birds and only live here on the hill from May to September. Their winters are spent toughing it out in Palm Springs,CA. So we have a very empty street right now. Our schools and church are only 1 mile away, BUT it is a mile straight down in elevation. So, we can have a little sprinkling of snow at church and come up the hill to a WHITE house, yard and driveway. When I pick up the kids at school in the winter they always ask,"is it snowing at home"? It is fun!

I've gotta go find the camera and take some pictures of the back deck.Our benches are are covered in snow.I am sure there will be lots of sledding today! The camera is in the room with John and Adam and they are asleep which is a miracle and a blessing to their mother. They stayed up late having a slumber party in the basement with Kathryn while Chris and I had a candlelit dinner for 2.It was only for 2 for a short time until John figured out Chris was home and came up and made it a threesome. He ate 3 corn on the cob and entertained us. Oh, what would we do without him..............Gotta love em.
I will take pictures and post them later this AM.

I found the camera! Now I am updating this post...

Here are a bunch of random pictures from the last few weeks .#1 Johnny admiring Daddy's
turkey skills on Thanksgiving.#2 Our one and only beautiful daughter, Kathryn.#3


Thanksgiving.#4 Salt Lake Temple #5 Rita and our good friend Brandie from CO. #6 and #7Adam and John swinging in the backyard in their costumes.#8 John and Adam clean and dressed at the same time= MIRACLE #9 Joy School Halloween party in the backyard. #10 Our sweet 10 yr old Steven AKA Stevo Mc Devo!

I am fully aware that I need major advice on how to get my pictures and words to layout right on this blog page....don't laugh! Just look at the pictures and enjoy.

More random photos, to include a recent BYU game with Jason, J.T., and Ken:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/83123420@N00/sets/72157603518733293/

It's About Time!!

I know it has been months since we have posted anything on our blog, but I am going to try and take it over from Chris since he has been so busy. He is teaching me the ropes slowly, but surely.

This is a picture of the sunset we see form the kitchen table. I thought you all might like to see it.They have been so beautiful lately.

The kids just got out of school for Christmas Break and we went shopping to Sears after school today with their gift cards from Grandpa John and Grandma Dana (Chris' parents). Six excited kids with gift cards and ONE adult is NOT something I would recommend to anyone I like.Top it off with a snow storm and a double stroller and I am ready to volunteer to have triplets without an epidural! Five days before Christmas doesn't help either.

Rewind to 3pm when I am on the phone with my sister and then my Mom and the kids are constantly bugging me about leaving to the mall. I am doing "sign language" telling them to get ready and help the little boys(John and Adam) get their coats,gloves, shoes on.I run into my room and get some decent "public" clothes on and fix my hair which looks like I have been electrocuted.(thank goodness for flat irons)Katie is constantly coming in to give me the "report" on all five boys behavior.(What would I do without 1 daughter?)Finally everyone is declared ready and waiting in the car!!!! I come out to the garage in 20 degrees and wonder why we moved from AZ and jump in FAST.I look in the rear view mirror to find everyone buckled up and Off we go to the MALL. I have come to know in the past few years why my Mom HATED the MALL......but that is a story for another post on another day.

We arrive and I get out and unload the double stroller and Alex's crutches(he broke his leg at Ryan's 9th bday in November and has been in a wheelchair up until last week)fun fun fun.another post..another day. Anyway I see the kids piling out of the car and when I laid eyes on my three youngest I KNEW I should have done and OUTFIT CHECK! Ryan is in a tie-dyed short sleeve t-shirt with a "ski bib" and snow boots on minus the coat necessary for a 20 degree day. Adam is in a nice sweater and corduroy pants.....one minor problem...they're both on backwards. To top it off he has on a pair of Ryan's snow boots with no socks! Then we have Johnny who jumps out with a shirt I took off of him after he spilled his lunch all over it(he must have pulled it out of the bathroom laundry hamper) and a pair of black sweats with the pockets turned out and his infamous Darth Vader shoes( that a lady gave him for free from a yard sale .......thanks a lot lady!!!) on the wrong feet with NO SOCKS! And John is yelling,"Give me my debit card".(his sears gift card) I had to laugh or I would have cried!

When we came out of the store an hour later Adam and Ryan were the proud new owners of suits for church and Steven had gotten a new pair of tennis shoes.My blood pressure was too high to finish all of the shopping in one day. Three gifts card gone..three to go. By the way, a genuine "thank you " to my in laws who sent the gift cards.We do appreciate every stitch of clothing we don't have to pay for.(: That is so thoughtful of you.

Here is a picture of Adam posing in his suit tonight when we got home. He wanted to put it on for Daddy to surprise him. Doesn't he look precious?????

I have so many pictures I want to post since it has been so long since we have updated this blog. I might put a few on here with short comments.

#1 Daddy and John working hard to shovel wet snow that was too sloppy for the snow blower.

#2 The view from the back of our yard.It was a hazy day in Ogden and almost looks like water. I thought it was pretty.Chris is embarrassed that the lawn wasn't mowed.

#3 and #4 The work of John.Usually right when we are going out the door to church or school!!! OOOOPS! #3 is a trash can knock over and #4 obvious!!! Uh oh!

I have 2 sister in laws (Amy and Davina) who are geniuses at blogging......obviously I need their help and advice with layouts and picture placement.I might be calling you Amy for some phone support.(: Well I did the best I could today. Hope you all enjoy. I PROMISE to update it more often.....Good night.