Obviously...it's The Back to School Post

Survived the first day. Went great actually. It was a big day for all.

Nathan started middle school (gasp)

Kristen will start 3rd grade and Gate this year (not surprised at all)

Samantha started Kindergarten (be still my heart, I nearly cried)

I almost forgot the camera before Nathan headed out the door to meet up with the neighbor(hood). I said to him "show me how excited you are to start middle school!" this is the face I got seconds before he turned and walked away...afraid that someone might see him getting photographed (heaven 4 bid)

Kristen of course was all sassy for pictures. Couldn't wait to wear her polka dot outfit. She chose a backpack that's nearly as big as she is. So happy to be back in school. She could do without a summer break!

Then there is my sweet and sassy little Samantha. In her jeans and long sleeves (of course), other than tanks (which she is wearing too) these are her clothes of choice. Even in 150 degree weather she will still wear jeans, though I won't let her wear long sleeves if I can help it! I love the bag she chose. It's not actually a back pack sorta thing. It's just a small messenger bag from Old Navy. But hey, its Kindy...she don't need no big ol' backpack.

ohhhh....be still my heart! she walked off ahead of us, so glad i whipped out the camera for this.

Once we dropped Kristen off and walked over to the kindy area she said she was scared. My sweet little thing, counting the days all summer till school started. So excited she could hardly stand it. And now, she is scared. The little fingers in the mouth, looking to the ground...wanting so bad to be brave. SHE gave me the hug...for comfort. This is when I started to choke.

Then there's little Jack Jack. He packed himself a lunch (chips, granola bar, water bottle) and was just as ready for school as the others. Although, after we drove away he said to me "why Samantha go school????" I don't think he realized she would be staying this time. He was a little sad. But then I took him to Target and let him pick out a big talking Buzz Light Year who is now his best bud.

I seriously think this is one of my most favorite pics of the little guy. He doesn't cooperate much anymore and his sun kissed little face and even more bleached out hair, in blue...h.e.a.r.t.b.r.e.a.k.e.r!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE....

We finally finished the girls room!

Samantha's bed

Kristen's bed

Even though they have day beds i have decided to go with the traditional line up of pillows. Their last set had ALL the pillows going across the back of the bed and quite frankly, that's just TOO MANY FREAKIN' PILLOWS. I couldn't take it anymore.

Now if your thinking, gosh what a cute, CLEAN room, just wait a second...

here are the photography conditions I was working with

Maybe I should have just let you think that we live in a gorgeous, spotless house. But that would be a LIE! There book shelf is A MESS. No matter how many times I clean it and tell them to leave it like that, they quickly put their little (messy) touches all over it. I want to paint the shelf again, but can't quite decide how. Brown? Or is that too much? Maybe just the roof?

The girls and I did work on a little art project for their room together. We made some paper owls and a bird to mount on canvas and frame. Pretty, Pretty, Pretty happy with how they turned out. Giddy is more like it!

They each designed their own owls and helped put them together. We mod podged them onto canvas that I cut down to fit the frame. I had these old Pottery Barn Artwork frames that were missing the plexi glass. I painted them brown, sanded them and attached ribbon (Martha Stewart ribbon) and hung them from these little flowers I bought at Tai Pan in Utah. We still need to hang the last flower to get the set up (ran out of screws).

Samantha's Owl, my bird

Kristen's owl

We are also wanting to make these cute little owls pillows from Pottery Barn together. That will make a good fall/winter sewing project for us girls! I ordered some cute fabrics from Heather Bailey I think will mix well with the fabrics that I used on their other pillows.

(isn't this room to DIE for????) seriously, if i didn't already have their room done I be SO tempted to splurge on this set. But i know the set they have will grow with them a little better.

And there you have it. The room!

Where are the Children???

It is summer...and where are my kids you may be wondering.

They have not made it to the blog lately.

Quite frankly, I haven't taken hardly any pictures this summer.

But I did grab the camera the other day and got a few shots of our latest little water baby.

Jack is outta control in the swimming pool!

It's hard to keep up with him.


In and Out
In and Out (not the burger joint)
Constantly jumping in the pool and swimming to the side
He is doing great.

Swimming lessons were definitely money well spent.


He also likes to throw himself across the pool and swim a stroke or two.

Four Things....

4 places I visit often:
The Internet :)
Target
Smiths
Costco
obviously...i do not lead an exciting life

4 people who call/e-mail or text regularly:
uuummmmmm.........
my mom
Lisa
Heather
Leslie

4 favorite foods:
anything with the following always make my mouth water,
mushrooms
green onions
sour cream
cream cheese

4 places I'd rather be:
obviously with my family, but since I'm always with them lets try a few others...
getting a facial/massage (doing that today...yay!)
locked in my scrapbook room with diet coke & candy (did that yesterday...yay again!)
shopping with friends (hoping to do that soon....Kirsten???)
eating out (always hoping for that!)

4 movies I'd watch over and over again:
Grease
Titanic
Harry Potter
The Sound of Music
(you know, ALL the classics!)

4 bands/groups I like to listen to:
Rascall Flatts
Dixie Chicks
Kenneth Cope/LDS artists
and I don't know....a lot of various artists

"MOMMMMMMM....COME QUICK YOU'RE NOT GONNA BELIEVE WHAT JACK IS DOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was the scream I heard from Kristen as she came running up the stairs to find me. Jack had been alone down stairs for 5 WHOLE MINUTES and this is what we found!

Him on top of the counter scooping out the flour. As i walked in he was rubbing the flour on his feet and said to me "mommy, i dirty. i washing." Clearly aware of what a kodak moment this was i let him be for the moment and hurriedly took some pictures (in my haste i failed to check my camera settings and the picture quality is quite horrible but, eh, so's the situation!)

He then proceeded to rub it all over his face and said "ho ho ho, i santa". He thought all of this was quite a neat little trick.

Do you see the flour on the cabinets? All over the counter, on the floor, on the stove, in between the stove and counter (never to be seen again). His shorts...ya, they are DARK blue, at least they WERE. Flour was everywhere...several cup fulls to be sure.

Everyone got to help clean up this little disaster, cause ya, I was getting ready for a date and had to pick up the sitter in 45 min.

We stripped him down on the spot and Nathan took him up for a bath (had to carry him cuz, uh, didn't need it tracked all the way up stairs, i had already had to vacuum the ENTIRE house that morning cause of him). Kristen and I vacuumed and wiped, and wiped and vacuumed the whole mess. All the while thanking my lucky stars it was the flour and NOT the sugar in the canister beside it. Holy cow...that sticky would have never gone away.

But....that's our Jack. A walking disaster zone. All i do is clean up after this boy. That morning he came up to me (still in bed) with an open package of oatmeal he wanted to eat. Granted, there wasn't any oatmeal left in the pkg. cause he had apparently toured the house with it!

A Path Made Way

Looking back today, it's easy to see how the path was laid before me. How I was mentally braced for this day 1 year ago. I'd felt uneasy about the trip from the moment it was planned. Couldn't say why, couldn't tell him not to go. I just knew deep down inside that I didn't want him to go. All my friends remember me talking about that while he was gone. Then that night...I felt off. I just wanted him to walk through the door. I had been listening to church music while I scrapped and a song came round over and over and I felt like it was for me. It was a song asking the Lord to stay by your side through the hardest thing...i cried every time it came on.

So when that phone rang, I was ready for it. I knew it was bad before I even picked it up...the spirit had been whispering to me, bracing me. So when the nurse talked to me, I was calm. I took the information in and then hung up the phone and sat there as the tears started to pour.

My first instinct was to grab some stuff, wake my kids and throw them in the car...at 4 in the morning. But I couldn't. Samantha was sick and I had planned to get her into quick care the second they opened that morning. I was sure she had strep and couldn't leave without taking care of her first. She'd been suffering the whole night.

It was a Friday and most of our clothes were dirty. So I did laundry in the dark in between phone calls from Canada, Idaho, and Utah. I did laundry while my husband was being life flighted to Salt Lake. And I waited...for quick care to open. I remember standing in my closet at one point staring at my clothes, for like 10 minutes, unable to choose. I showered, all in the dark. I wanted my kids to sleep as long as possible. Then I had to wake them, and tell them. Try to tell them, without breaking down.

As the hours passed by I wondered how on earth I would be able to drive the 6 hours to Salt Lake. I didn't know what I was going to do. I thought that was too much a favor to ask someone, to take me. But I thought of one person I knew could do it...unfortunately when I got a hold of him he was still out of town. But unknown to me he started making calls. While I was at quick care for what I thought should only be an hour, my little world started looking for me. We got into quick care right away, we were the first ones there. But the crazy dr. didn't know what was wrong with her and ordered all kinds of extra testing, blood and urine from my 4 year old. Testing that took THREE hours! I was beside myself.

During those 3 hours I finally decided to turn my phone back on and I had a million messages. My family was looking for me. My sweet brothers were making plans to hit the road and meet me half way so I wouldn't have to drive the whole trip. Friends had left messages offering to take me. There were offers to keep my kids. There were so many offers, I was amazed.

As hard as it was to sit in quick care for 3 hours I knew when I got home that the Lord had prepared everything I needed in that time. That time was needed to get everything together on my behalf. By the way...they couldn't find anything wrong with Samantha.

When I pulled into my garage my bishop and his wife pulled in behind me. Ready...ready to drive me to Utah. Friends showed up behind them. They fed my kids a very late breakfast. Cleaned things up while I finished gathering what we needed. They packed my car, gassed it up and put my little family in the car.

The blessings were pouring in that day and the path was made way for me. As I sat there...riding for hours, my husband underwent surgery. I had to give consent over the phone. I spoke with triage, nurses, doctors, family. All these conversations took place in front of my children. There was no way to protect them from what was going on.

That was the LONGEST trip of my life. I seriously thought we would NEVER get there. As prepared as I had been for this day I was not prepared for the severity of his injuries nor the condition I would find him in.

It was 10:00 that night when I finally got to the hospital. Surrounded by family and friends was my husband whom I barely recognized. He was on a ventilator, covered in wounds. It was hard to know everything he had been through this day...without me by his side. Looking back now I think I must have been in shock for 2 days. There was just so much "to do", so many things to take care of and people to talk to. It wasn't until Sunday that I lost it. And i lost it HARD. The man I knew wasn't "there". And I worried whether or not I would get him back and what he would go through to recover. That day I felt more scared than I ever had in my entire life. Reality was sinking in.

For two weeks I got up early, dragged my poor kids to a relatives home and left them for the entire day. Over and over. Every few days I would tear myself from Doug and try to spend some time with them, to help them feel secure in their unsure little world. So much happened in that time and so many blessings were felt.

I often wondered if life would ever be the same for us again. I wanted it back so bad. It's amazing to look back now after one year, of everything that we have been through, and to know that we will never be the same. But that's ok. We have grown so much and experienced things we could never have otherwise. I have felt the Savior in my life in ways I never knew. I have been humbled beyond belief. Both Doug and I believe that miracles happened that day for us.

Hard doesn't even begin to describe what we have been through this last year but I am so grateful that today I feel whole again. Changed, with a new sense of happiness. So grateful for everything that we have and for everyday that we have together.

The Lemon Magnet

That seems to be me. My laptop...on the fritz...again! This time, it's bad. I may have a bad hard drive. Have to wait and see what miracles can be performed. Praying...all my pictures will come back with it. My computer man says he'll get em for me, not to worry. OK! So once again, I'm basically picture less over here. I suppose I could install my programs on this computer and load pictures here, but I don't feel like dealing with that. We'll just have to wait.

The other lemon factor in my life...our oven. Fixed it just over a year ago for A LOT of money. Was told it should be good for life. Apparently life meant 1 year and 4 months. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH! Now, we will just have to buy a new stove. Will not fix this one again. Since when did stoves get so expensive????? And please tell me people, that a stove will last more than 4 years without having to be repaired and or replaced.

I was able to scan one of Kristen's dance pictures (well, the only one I forked out money for anyway). So here is my little lovely in her High School Musical costume. Isn't she adorable. She was SO excited about this picture, it's all she talked about. How the photographer put the numbers on her foot, how she was the FIRST one he tried this pose on. She also had a ballet number but of course there was a malfunction with the photographer and we didn't even get any of those. So my pics of her are trapped on my laptop right now.

(i couldn't even trim the dang thing!)

The day of her recital we headed up to Utah as soon as it was over. Spent Fathers Day with all our family, mine and Doug's. It was a lot of fun and so great to see almost everyone.

That Monday we took Nathan to BYU for basketball camp. He was so excited to stay in the dorms with friends and be away from home for 4 days. Picking him up...not as exciting as dropping him off. He was exhausted to say the least, felt like he'd been done wrong, picked on, blamed for everything, downright ornery and never wanting to go back again! We stopped for some dinner after and he fell asleep in my lap! I decided to delay my judgement on this camp and his experience till after he'd had a good nights sleep. The next day he felt much better and was telling everyone he'd had a good time. As the days went by he talked about it more and realized he'd learned a lot, not everyone is going to be nice, basketball camp is hard but worth it and that he would be going next year. I guess it was a learning experience for him on controlling his emotions and dealing with being on his own without his parents to defend him.

While Nathan was at camp the girls and I (Jack was an honorary girl for the week) had a great week. Played lots, shopped at all the right places (though I was quite frugal all week for some horrible reason)...Tai Pan, Ikea, Build a Bear, Archivers, Roberts. The girls had money and purchased new build a bears and we got Jack his first one (a scruffy dog) and had him record his voice and put in the dog...it's stinkin' cute. He says "I'da capain...argh", being the pirate freak that he is. Ate at the Training Table several times, yummy. Spent time with grandma's, cousins, aunts and uncles. Spent a night with Lisa Forsyth...laughed and giggled like a bunch of girls. By weeks end my car was FULL, I had a migraine, we were pooped and ready to get home and see Daddy. So we did!

When I get my computer back I'll share pictures of a couple of cute finds and the curtains in the girls room.