Photo Tag

This is a picture of our family at the Sacred Grove in Palmyra, NY in July 2008. This year we went camping and went to the Hill Cummorah Pageant, where we high-fived Nephi, and John the baptist. (the actors of course.) Samuel got a picture taken with his Book of Mormon Hero-Samuel the Lamanite. We had a blast!

I tag Lana, Traci, Beth and Stephanie!

Here are the rules: 1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer 2) Select the 4th picture in the folder 3) Explain the picture 4) Tag 4 people to do the same NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc..)

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Can I just say how glad I was to find that photos of my pre-exercising days were NOT in the 4th folder!! I was sacred for a few minutes!! YIKES!

My Latest Hobby

Tis' my favorite time of the year again. Time to check out all the seed catalogs, order seeds, and start them growing. I started my 42 tomato plants, 12 cauliflower, and 72 onions, herbs, and flowers last week. Some have started to come up. I love gardening!! Aren't these little baby tomatoes just so cute?!? This is my handy dandy plant stand that my sweet husband built me last year to make my life easier with starting indoor plants. He love me!! :) His new addition this year was a pulley system that moves the lights up and down. Just to the perfect growing level of my little plants. I absolutely love them. And the best thing about it is..........there are two!!! They are great at holding all my indoor and outdoor plants for the winter (also Grandma Middies), it gives them artificial sun to keep them happy.

Gonna mention also for those who are wanting to do gardens this year. There is a wonderful site I found that lets you plot your garden out, with cute little vegetable graphics. Thy are color coded, so you know what you can plant by what, and they automatically space out to proper amount. All you have to do is add the dimensions of your garden, and plop in your vegetable. Totally awesome!! We plotted our 6 gardens, the orchard, and the herb garden for this year.
www.growveg.com

New Little Garbage Man

With all the older 10 kids in school now, I have had to recruit a new crew to help me with the inside jobs. Actually I could do it by myself...but I have found out that if I get Nathan, Willem, and Brenna to help me, and stay with me.......there doesn't turn out to be a mess in the other room. Helping me around the house makes them feel so big and special......so it works for all of us. Nathan's favorite job is to Vacuum, Willem likes to change to shake out the table cloth and put out a new one. Brenna always wants to sweep. It's a good thing we have 2 brooms, I let her attempt at it, hoping she doesn't whack a lamp down or something as she seems to swing the other end of the broom around a lot. They all love to sort out the clothes, and put them in the kid's rooms. We are a good little team together.

Yesterday I asked Willem to pull the garbage bags out of the cans and put new sacks in. I didn't expect him to really be able to handle it. When he was done he came hopping to me, and says "Momma, I did it all by myself." I replied, "Good job Willem, you are such a big boy now." He then got the biggest eyes I have ever seen on him, and he says with a big grin "Ooohhhh, am I big enough for a pocket knife now?"

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I thought that was pretty funny. He is only 4. Yet he knows when you are big, you get to carry a pocket knife like the older 4 boys. This only happens in our house when you are 11 years old, and you go through your scout knife safety class. I now know what all my little boys are looking forward to.

So Long Weeks Medical Center

Last night was John's last night to work up at Week's Medical Center. This is a small little hospital in Lancaster, NH. John worked Per Diem up there for 6 years now, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights. This helped us to stay on top of the bills. The hospital is cutting back on hours and employees, so John was let go. We have mixed emotions about this right now. But we are extremely all thrilled with having him home weekend nights now. That will be great, and take some of the pressure off of me. John is even more excited to spend time with the 13 kids, and to do a few projects around the house that have been put off. It is a good thing!!

Snow Day

We got a bunch more snow last night. It was like a blizzard out, the way the wind was blowing so hard. By morning, the whole layout of the snow was completely different. Snow had drifted every which way. Needless to say that school was cancelled today while everyone gets unburied. Good news though, our phone finally came back on. The kids didn't mind one more day off from school! They were out bright an early this morning doing their outside animals so they would have lots of time to sled and play. We kind of had a lazy and enjoyable day of playing games, coloring, and watching movies. We made a bunch of dough up for scones--to nights dinner, with hot chocolate. This should keep the kids content and quiet so we can have Family Home Evening at the same time. It's been a good and relaxing day.

Klondike Derby

Elijah, Zachery, Caleb and Joshua attended the Klondike Derby yesterday in Vermont. They all have been excited about this for months now. The older three boys have explained how their troop had one last year, and anything else Joshua would need to know about this big day. They couldn't wait. They have spent the past 3 weeks at scout meetings building their troop sled.

(I personally thought it was a little on the whanny side.........but it seemed to do the job none the less.) All the kids had high hopes of winning again this year....especially the sled race.

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From what I hear, there are many events. Fire building, first aid accidents, compass tests, etc. But I think they all like it because of the sled race. The sled has to carry certain items that the boys will need during the relay. And it has to be pulled by the boys. Elijah worked out for 2 weeks, so he would be strong enough to take the lead. To make a long story short, they won the race by a few minutes I have been told. As for the overall totals on all the events, there was a 3 way tie between troops. So our troop, and 2 others were presented with awards. Elijah received it for our troop. They were all extremely proud!! And we have decided that Elijah must be part Siberian Husky. Part of the time he pulled the sled by himself. He is a go-getter!

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I have to mention also that Joshua's smallness finally paid off. Our troop had a little advantage with him now being part of our troop. They used him to pull on the sled, to carry in the broken leg event, and to pull on some plastic, like a log. Joshua didn't seem to mind--he had a blast. He was all full of smiles when he come home and was telling me all about his wonderful day.

Quick Update

Because I have had a hard time posting this week, I will give a quick update. Things have been pretty busy around here with the kids home for winter break this week. They go back to school on Monday, so it should calm down a little around here.

Things that have gone on around our house:

• I gave all 10 boys haircuts--I found cute little faces under all that hair.
• Zachery got sick with the cough and fever.
• John and the 4 older kids went to the temple for baptisms for the dead in Boston.
• John's car fell apart along the road--he did collect the pieces and put it back together.
• Jacob got sick with the cough and fever.
• Cassidy got sick with the cough and fever.
• John got let go of his 2nd job.
• Our baby calf Twix died--no idea why.
• Kid's had dentist check-ups this week.
• Brenna got sick with cough and fever.
• Joshua, Isaac, and Jacob have been working on their Scout Derby Cars.
• Elijah, Zachery, Caleb, and Joshua participated in Scout Klondike Derby in Vermont.
• Nathan go sick with cough and fever.
• We turned the school room back into a family room.
• Elijah and Zachery had fun snowmobiling at a friends house.
• John and Elijah are giving talks tomorrow in church.

That about sums it all up around here for this week. We are looking forward to another big snowstorm tomorrow after church. Maybe the kids will get an extra day off to do more sledding!

Celebrating Love in Our Family

I LOVE our little Family!

We had a fun and wonderful Valentines Day all 15 of us together as a family. One could hear the laughter, see the smiles, and feel the love. What more could anyone want.

We wouldn't change a thing!

Four Girls

Always Together--Never Apart

Zachery's 15th Birthday

Last week was Zach's birthday. He turned 15 years old. He didn't want much for his birthday except for a couple little things for his guitar, and a carrot cake. He is a tough one to figure out what to get him. He is content with what he has, and doesn't expect much. He is a good kid! I took him with me one day to look around Walmart to give him ideas. We looked through the while store twice but he couldn't think of what he needed. So, I got him a card, and we gave him cash for his birthday instead. We did get him a couple small things though which he enjoyed. He loved his giant bag of wintergreen lifesavers--a MUST for all of Zachery's birthday. He also liked his guitar strap, and bluegrass tab book. He has a good night considering he was sick, and we were rushed due to school. We love you Zachery Daniel!

Our Newest Addition

Our newest addition is a super cute little brown jersey calf. He is now just over a couple weeks old. We have high hopes of teaching this little guy to drink straight from the bucket this weekend. Because we got him the day before Shannon's Birthday, she asked if she could have him and take care of him. And that is what happened, he is hers to take care of since all the rest of the kids have an animal to take care of.

Shannon took on the morning and afternoon jobs of feeding the baby calf.

We named this little guy Twix, since that is Shannon's favorite candy bar.

Blankets for Levi and Tucker

Lana has PATIENTLY (well, all except for the past 2 weeks that is....lol) been waiting for me to finally get around to making these blankets for her twins. Well, I finally did it! I finally accomplished something. They turned out pretty cute...I am excited to see pics of the boys in them. I had to post the pic so Lana would believe me that they were on their way. Hope you like them Lana!

Happy Birthday Shannon Cha Cha Cha

Believe it or not, we finally actually celebrated a birthday on it's real day. Shannon just had her 13th birthday. We now officially have 4 teenagers in our house. WOW!! For her birthday we had our first picnic of the year. We had green grass (tablecloth, and blue sky(blue crate paper)..........and it was even sunny (yellow pinata)!!! The flowers were blooming just for her special day. It was a perfect day for a picnic. Jumpy and his other ladybug friends even came out to join us (red balloons). We had Hoggie sandwiches, watermelon and fruit salad, chips, and soda. The kids all ate their food while we all had pleasant conversation and wiggled to the tunes of the Beach boys in the background. We had so much fun--we really can't wait for summer now, to have an outside picnic, and go to the ocean again.
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After dinner, Shannon opened her gifts. Shannon is easy to please, and she loved all her gifts. Possibly the Twix candy bars was her favorite, seeing as she nearly ate the whole bag in one day. I warned her about being a teenager now....she wouldn't want all that chocolate to go straight to her hips.......lol. Then we had a fun time of TRYING to break the Pinata. I did too good of job at my gluing........they couldn't break it open. They did manage to make a whole heck of alot of dents in it though. After everyone had a turn, I ended up just ripping it open for them. We let them have 3 pieces each, and the rest went in a big bowl. The plan is that every night after they get their homework done, they get to choose 2 pieces each. I know--bribery! (Hey, whatever works!)
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Then we went back to the dining room for the cake. We sung Happy Birthday to her (adding on the Cha Cha Cha part at the end--that got a big smile from her!). She blew out all the candle, and we were all happy to know that there are no boyfriends to be had....all the candles went out!
It was a great night....and they were all sugared out. Shannon and I stayed up together and played her new game of Mancala a few times and watched her new DVD "Holes" together. What fun!

Totally Completely Sour

Shannon was brave and decided to try one of the extremely Sour War Head candies from her Birthday Pinata. This is how it went.

Guess you had to be here to totally enjoy the scene. It was too funny! The different sounds that came from her, were better then the pictures.

Afterschool Homework

After school, at our house is literally mass confusion. Backpacks are thrown in the backroom, boots, gloves, hats, snow pants, coats all come off, and are thrown on the ground. Kid's scatter to play. It takes me a good while to gather everyone back up each day to get them to take responsibility of their things, and to get them put back away right. I then have everyone bring me all the papers from their backpacks, including notes, quizzes, art papers, permission slips, homework, etc. I end up with a counter full. One look at the old papers, and quizzes just to see how they are progressing, and they are in the garbage. Permission slips are signed and back in bags. Kids let me know what homework each has, so I am able to question them each later to make sure it was all finished. Then we divide up into different areas of the house to get the homework done.

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Hannah and Joshua (notice his glasses in the picture) usually work together since they are in the same grade. This seems to work for them, usually if one didn't catch on to something, the other one did, and they can explain it. Caleb and Shannon pretty much work separately, seeing that they work at their own pace. Each one has their strong and weak points. But if needed they are very willing to help each other out. (Last night Caleb helped Shannon with her Science an Stocks, and Shannon helps Caleb with his poems and Typing.) Cassidy, Isaac, Samuel, and Jacob work on their own, with no needed help. Zachery is pretty good about getting all his work done--unless it comes to reports. And Elijah only needs help with his Algebra.........which he waits for John to come home to help him with that one. It is a slightly stressful first hour after school. But somehow......everyday we manage to get all 10 kid's homework finished.

There's Something in Our House

I spent the better part of yesterday convincing Miss Brenna to put her sock on, or better yet, to KEEP her sock on, since I had put them on her over a dozen times. (The girl just likes to be barefoot!) Towards the afternoon, I had given up on trying to convince her.

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Just before I was to go pick ups the kids from school, I hopped in the shower. Brenna was hanging out in our gigantic bathroom, playing cars on the round braided rug. Next I hear a shriek and a little bit of banging .

"Momma, Momma, there's something in our house!"

"It needs to get out of here!"

"It's going to kill me!"

"But it can't get me."

I looked out of the shower, and sure enough she was up on the stool (that explained the banging)....she was not about to get off that stool either! I asked her what it was that she saw.

"It was a tiny cute mouse."

"It ran in the kitchen."
"I better hurry and get my socks on, so it don't eat my toes."

And that was all it took. she grabbed more socks, and had them on in literally 10 seconds. She kept them on the rest of the day. Soooooo, this morning, I told her to put her socks on, so the mouse won't nibble on her toes. Her socks have remained on all morning so far. Who knew it was that easy.