I am beginning to get concerned about our weather. Today it was like 50 something degrees out which is great, except its been colder than that lately and it is deceptive!! That wind blows and suddenly you remember how cold it is. also it makes you want to go to and play and then the next day you are chipping ice off your car.... its a bunch ofnonesense. i wish winter was over already....and sadly it has just begun, we have until at least april.... :(

seven things

Seven Things
The Rules:*Link to the person who tagged you. Kara tagged me.*Share 7 random/weird facts about you.*Tag 7 people at the end of the post, and include links to their blogs.

1. I love to read while I eat. I feel weird when i dont have book and i am eating.
2. I still sleep with a 3 foot tigger stuffed animal i got when was a kid.
3. I love pickles but hate olives/artichokes
4. When i really smile you can hear my teeth crackle
5. I love sending and receiving snail mail
6. I love puppy breath
7. I have to change something about me monthly or i go nuts

I tag guymongoofs.blogspot.com (rachelle) http://benlindavoelkel.blogspot.com/ (linda) pressleet.blogspot.com (paul) http://rainsintheplains.blogspot.com/catherine and http://kbh-keepingpace.blogspot.com/

Sadly I do not know 7 people who blog :(

winter laziness

ahh what a wonderful day to day. It was warm, like 40 degrees this morning when i went to run my errands. It was great. I took the boys to the park but because it was all open it was a heck of a lot colder. so we played for like 5 minutes. they were awfully sad about this until we went and wreaked havoc on our pal linda.... now we are trying to get back into the swing of things ..... and so i have decided to avoid the laundry and the mopping just like old times :P

ahh what a wonderful day to day. It was warm, like 40 degrees this morning when i went to run my errands. It was great. I took the boys to the park but because it was all open it was a heck of a lot colder. so we played for like 5 minutes.

Brr its beginning to look a lot like winter

So high today is like 15 degrees. Its icy and cold and raining and slick and yucky and cold and did i mention its icy and BRRRR!!!
Yesterday it was almost warm like 50 degrees or something, and it was fantastic. No coats just nice cool wind and an overcast day. Yep that ended last night. its crazy/ Today was a snow day for Boston. His school called at 5:00am to let us know that there was no school. Which was nice, cause i was a bit worried. dont want my first born on a huge honking bus skidding into school.......... But taylor started working nights again and so he was sleeping today and of course the kids were going nuts.... i tried distracting them with making sugar cookies with cookie cutters and icing. it was slightly fun but mostly aggravating. I cannot make certain cookies for the life of me. I am sure the more i try the better it will be but alas i am lazy.

A new calling

Guess what??? I am the new young womens president for our Pagedale Branch, and boy am i excited.... Yep sure am. yep really, okay to be truthful i am very nervous and a little scared. I know these girls, i know what the branch wants for these girls and sometimes i know what the girls themselves want, so all i have to do is mix it together and volia, right??? Wrong i am sure. So please keep me in your prayers, more so then before, when you were just praying that i would get skinny again and have green eyes(what? a girl can dream cant she?) Pray that these girls dont eat me alive that i am fair and wise in this new calling...... and pray that they all dont end up strippin' !!! JUST KIDDING anyway wish me luck

and thats all folks

what else you may ask did we do in the great state of Texas? well lemme tell ya. We visited with my grand parents.... my dad and his "friend", got to see all my uncles and aunts on my dads side which is a big deal. Visited with my aunt on my moms side. um got to hang out with my bro and his gal and marky and sarah... Spent some time with my pledge sis Cassie..... and my best pal from highschool Kat.

Went shopping with my mom. Quite a few times, came back with some cool stuff. Love Mom she is great to hang out with. Tay went golfing with Mark .....

Hmm really didnt do a whole lot aside from hold baby brynden and go crazy from lack of sleep... all in all a great trip....still dont know where all the time went.

Games we played

Here are some of the games we played while in texas, ROOK,Zombies, ROOK, more Zombies, ROOK, and did i mention that we played ROOK? We love a good game of Rook and luckily we have some friends in san antonio who play with us. Taylor's pal Marky Mark and his lovely gal Sarah beara played with us constantly. Taylor who gets quite worked up about it had some fun moments. Examples of these moments you might ask? Taylor has the Rook, how do we know?!? You might ask ..... CAW CAW is what taylor says out of nowhere while looking at his cards. ANother classic couples moment. 'where is the 14 of red?????" Mark tell me you didnt bury the 14 ..... "Uh, Tay, I did" imagine the hoopla that followed that!!!!!!

Zombies we played with my bro Jake and his girl Jen (kinda like jack and jill but mexican) Its a not quite a board game but it has cards and zombies and the first one to the helipad or 25 zombie kills wins... And yes i kicked some Zombie butt!!!!

ummm yep I think that is all the games we played, every night for 7 days.... dontcha wish you had gone with us!

Home again

I am so grateful to be home again. I love walking into my home, smelling our own smell and sleeping in my bed, showering in our shower and eating my own food. We started our trip friday the 28, around 9pm quite suddenly. Originally we were going to leave Saturday morning the 29, when Taylor gets a wild hair up his butt and decides he has to leave NOW so we load everyone up and trek the 7.5 hours to Oklahoma. Taylor was a trooper and drove the whole way i slept about 3hours on and off while the boys slept the whole way. We reached OK city around 4am. The boys woke around 7am so i got a total of 3-4 hours once we were out of the car. Taylor slept in and my kids drove me crazy.
Then we "rested"and got on the road again leaving okcity around 615pm and making our way home. Little did we know (because we did not watch the weather and our dear friends in stl didnt call to tell us, even though they knew we were coming in) that snow was acoming! we hit rain and heavy flurries the last leg of the trip about 3hours worth. The wipers were sucky so it felt like we were going warp speed(with out the multi colors) in a blurred blizzard. I am exaggerating of course but man it was tough. The boys slept through it all while taylor and i jammed out to various songs on the radio. Poor suckers. we finally made it in around 140am putall the monkeys in bed and unloaded the car.
We attempted to sleep in which didnt work since the kids slept in the car :( we were up by 7am having gone to bed around 3am and finally made it to church(it was my turn to teach and i must honor my committments) which went well then home again (starting to hate this car) and napping (love that)
all in all it has been a productive weekend.... there will be more to come on the actual vacation. Stay tuned!!!

vacation

So family time is a great thing, its been nice to have family around that i havent seen in at least a year. This year i have seen everyone, even my uncle who's never around. the trip has been pretty uneventful so far. The boys have been sick all week until today, even now they are fighting off a cough. The baby has been horrible, constantly waking up at night and my mom has to work real early so she hasnt appreciated the 230am wake up calls and keeps yelling at me to give him the boobie!!!! I cant wait to go home. Its gonna suck getting Brynden back on schedule ..............anyway gotta go watch tropic thunder.....

Leaving .... on a jet plane

Today is the day!!!! I am not leaving today but i am getting everything ready. I have a list and i am checking things off. But of course it had to start out like any other jam packed day.... Baby woke up at 230 and then at 430 AM of course. I refused to get him until 445 to feed him breakfast.... changed him cause he soaked thru and sucked his boogers out(not with my mouth) and gave him some meds cause not only is he teething(top two) but he has a cough and a runny nose a fever and 2 sick brothers. YEP! So at 630 after Taylor has left for work in the morning Brody has woken up crying bc he peed his diaper and he is sleepy and feverish and coughing.... he ditches the underpants and comes snuggling into bed with me... keeping me nice and toasty with his fevered body. now it is 720 all the monkeys are up and its time to start the school rush. since we woke up late i am trying to get boston to eat FASTER, since it is 755 he is not done yet and needs to brush his teeth and get his jacket on and did i mention that we need to LEAVE?!?? Brody is whining, Brynden is crying and i am frustrated.......finally get him off to school and start my list mopping laundry the whole nine yards..... and then i get a phone call. School Nurse ::Boston threw up in PE 2x and refuses to come home..... now i think great dont have my car, taylor is at work and my pals are busy.... i could always walk to go get him but i have 3 kids and going to get a fourth kid a little over a mile away (and a mile back) in the COLD is not my idea of FUN> call TAY beg him to go get Boston in his police car.... B gets a kick out of that.

Now everyone is home napping and medicated and I still need to mop, laundry etc.,..... grr vacation cannot come soon enough

friendly faces

oh who are the people in the neighbor hood we have daila , boston, Naked Brynden, Brody and dad ......just your average friendly faces

Brotherly love

Brody really likes Brynden which was a suprise to me bc i thought he would resent the bundle of joy that kicked him out of our beds and into his own. He likes him so much he squishes the heck out of Brynden....

Mormon Missionaries

So here arethe future mormon missionaries.... arent they the cutest you have seen?

Who the heck knew

Remember when things were so easy? Gosh it seems as though once again i never take advantage of the easiness when it is near. Every new section in life where we take on new responsiblilites, from no children to one and a job, to two with a husband and no job added to the mix, to now three (one in school) and still no job and thankfully still a husband. And at each section in my life i can remember thinking. Gosh why is this so hard? when does it get easy? only to find out that i had it pretty good each time. I look back to my days without any kids or a hubby and think, what was so hard about that? i mean really? and boy was i skinny!!!!! then I remember when i had Boston as a single mother , and a newly 21 year old and thinking What the heck am i doing, and did i make the right decision and please let it get better and easier. Now i think (only on some days when it is tough) why cant the boys grow up just a little?!? cant they ever stop fighting? And when can i have my girl? what will the future hold?I may still be asking like Heavenly Father is a crystal ball but I definitely am much better at counting my blessings. I do it ever time i lay down and close my eyes. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband. Friends that support me in our beliefs (esp when i want those jelly shots) and three great boys who love to drive me nuts.... a family who has always supported me even when i was wrong and a heavenly father who was loved me through out and it has been with the help of The church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints that i have such a strong testimony. And funny enough i didnt realize it till right this second. I have never gotten up and spoken and today being fast and testimony makes this posting seem ironic. I had no intention of testifiying but when you count your blessings and name them one by one (love that song) its very easy to see that Heavenly Father has been very clear and present in my life and without the church i knew that he exisited but have never felt him like this..... there is a point to going to church on sundays....crazy i know. who knew that it would be a blessing when every sunday it is such a fight (its too cold, i am too sleepy, the boys are sick, etc) to even get there......

Big boys

Long day today as to be expected. Seriously love that the boys are able to play by themseleves. They take their blankets and build forts, without any help and play power rangers. Have been longing for these days. The few minutes to myself. Not quite having to help them get dressed or put their shoes on. they still need help on occassion but it is nice to have them act like big boys. They dont last very long yet, and after 15 minutes someone is crying but it makes me sad. They grow up so fast. Part of it is me giving them responsiblities. Boston is the biggest helper and best hanger uper we have while Brody does well with picking up toys and getting the dog food bowl. Part of it is them, desperate to help to do something that adults do. Little do they know that we wish we could be their age again.

More on VOTING

A girlfriend of mine who is for barack obama said she was an OBAMA girl and OBAMANOS (she's mexican, its funny)

My reply to that is I am an ameriCAIN .... (cant claim the credit for that witty one. I got it from Elisabeth Hasselback on the view)

Voting .....And the winner is McCain

So today i voted. I am 26 years old and have never voted in my life. Serious problem i know but now i want to add my 2cents to the pile. Will it matter? not sure but i woke up at 530 this morning and ran/walked the mile to the polls to place my vote. I waited in line for an hour and half with my pal linda(who met me there, we did not plan that, she drove and i pretended to run) This is all well and good and while we were waiting in line and snacking on donuts so thoughtfully provided, we came up with a couple of What If's . Any one who spends any time with me knows that i love those kind of questions.... i think i annoy linda with them but she takes it on the chin and tries to answer me. so first what if question is....

What if you live on a house boat between missouri and illinois and your address is the RED HOUSE BOAT on the river then where do you vote? (dumb i know)

Second what if question is what if you are in space (ie space shuttle) what do you do about voting? What if you have been there for the past 2 years and you were not able to absentee vote? then what? do they send a pollster to the shuttle and have you vote? I mean if they can send a plumber to the shuttle to fix the broken toilet, then they can send a ballot to you, right?!?

anyway i read my friend Kara's blogspot and i have to agree with her....
I'll keep my guns, my freedom and my money and you can keep THE CHANGE!
Texas bumper sticker seen by April Baker
I am Kara Hess, I am an American and I approve this message
the difference is I am April Williams, I am an AmeriCAIN and I approve this message!!

sleeping beauty

Brynden is getting to be lots of fun these days. he is a very busy boy who crawls everywhere. Here is a list of a few of his favorite things to do. When you first set him on the floor he hightails it the kitchen where he licks the air vent on the floor. If we stop him then his next place to go to is the bathroom where he tries to get in the tub.... he also likes our entertainment center. he climbs in and plays prisoner....


then there is his walker. He likes it, so much so that today he fell asleep in it twice. the second time he face planted into his cherrios.... poor guy

More halloween

at the top is anna voelkel, Boston, and Janae Voelkel




next are the boys trick or treating






and finally are our pumpkins that's joe, larry, moe and the twins and the bottom is larry moe and the twins but their alternate faces .... .just turn them around and you have a whole new family we didnt carve pumpkins this year we poke holes in them like a mister potato head and it was fun.

More on the pinkeye

One day taylor was rubbing his eye and saying that there was something in it. THis was saturday..... By monday it was full blown demon eyes. Then Daila came down with it.... By wednesday i had it and the house was going nuts. We cleaned everything, lots of washing of the hands, rubbed them raw. :( then the next week comes and daila and i are healed and janae(daila's sister) has it, its monday again. By wednesday Linda(daila's mom) has it and today is sunday and Anna(daila's sister) has it now too. Luckily enough none of my children have it but i am not holding my breath.... that pink eye is a sneaky dastardly thing....... wish us luck

Halloween

I know its November now but i wanted to touch on halloween. Boston was a white power ranger Brody and Brynden were pirates. Our neighbor hood is great about halloween there is this one street, the "haunted" side of Windom that goes all out. All the houses except like 5 are decorated, we walked the streets with our pals the Voelkels, the Guymons, the Douglas's and the Woolley's. Somewhere on the page will be pics of the boys, and voelkel girls and my hubby..... It was great fun.

Wreath of Diapers

thanks to the great internet i snagged the idea and made it my own. It came out pretty well. I made it for my friend Shannon who is having a baby soon.... for her baby shower. It was a big hit... Next will be a diaper cake. Keep your fingers crossed

Church

So today i thought i was going to be all cool. We had a stake conference and i thought that i would catch it on the BYU channel so i didnt worry about getting the monkeys ready, i set the dvr to record the conference and went about my day. I realized later that they couldnt possibly have the STAKE conference because the church is so large they wouldnt be able to televise all the stake conferences.....My bad.

egh

Have you ever noticed how slowly time seems to go when you are waiting for something and then next time you look up, a few months have passed and where again did all the time go. I have been away from the computer but let me catch you up on a few things in my life....

We still have Portland. Yep what started out as a good deed has morphed into the Williams family dog.... She has met with a few families, they all say she is a good dog but kinda hyper... She does not act like this at my house.... Taylor is convinced that she is purposefully messing up her chances cause she loves it here soooo much..... so we will see.

Life has been a bit busy lately especially since pink eye is circulating in my house. Makes for weepy infectious eyes and of course i have a cold on top of that... my life is kinda sucky right now... thankfully the kids dont have it(yet) but taylor has a similar infection but it is viral instead of bacterial.... which means no antibiotics and it will take at least 6 weeks to heal/ he has 2 red demon eyes that are weepy and itchy and down right disgusting! wish us luck......

enough

So today is sunday which is synonomous with church days. I am always late even though I wake up at 7 dress the boys by 8 and then i am showering and getting ready then next thing i know the baby wants to be fed, my makeup isnt done and its like 945 and church starts at 10. The boys are running around like mad and i have just had ENOUGH!!! cant they just sit still and wait? cant they just watch some cartoons? cant the baby want to eat at 9 so that i would have more time? and of course now i need to change his diaper. UGH its enough to drive a sane woman mad.
Then there is church. Today went well all boys behaved decently. You know, no loud screaming or fighting, the baby played quietly. And the rest of church was smooth sailing, i enjoyed my lessons and learned something which is always nice. And my husband was there which made it so easy.........
By the time we get out of church and have fed everyone its like 2pm i send everyone down for a nap and proceed to lay down when of course, the baby wakes up..... i feed him and put him back down and now its 4. By which time Brody is up. My husband takes pity on me and sends me to bed only to wake me up an hour later because Brody has a fever.... Have i mentioned how busy sundays are?
then its dinner time and bath time and bed time and mommy/daddy time and then mommy time... which is usually mommy's bedtime....
The thing to rememeber is :it was a good day, we were spiritually fed, and we were together as a family.

Basement day

I thought it would be a lazy day, as i have already stated repeatedly. Then i remembered that it was basement day. we have had a leak in our basement and with things the way they are in missouri we had a tons of opprotunities for pool parties curtesy of the leaks in the basement. so a few friends from church helped my non handy handy man husband break upo the cement in our floor and fix the pipe that was stopped up... apparently our tree likes to grow its roots in the pipe. hence all the water on my floor, it couldnt drain because of the roots. so they fixed that, GREAT, but then everyone got busy, and for a few months we have had an open trench in our floor. Well today they are cementing it in. Which means lots of noise and men grunting down below.... and of course its hard to be lazy when there are others working so hard nearby..... so i guess i will get to my chores.... but i dont want to!!!!!

ritneour parade

so today was a lazy day. At least i feel very lazy. Was woken up by brody, naked from the waist down. apparently that is the style these days. Then remembered that my pal linda said there was a parade today. didnt want to go but since the parade last year was tons of fun, ie candy galore, i decided to saddle up the monkeys and walk on over to linda's street to grab candy that was being thrown from all the schools in the ritneour school district. Brody was super slow on the uptake he would get distracted with a piece of candy while there were tons getting snapped up by his brother and the voelkels. luckily the older kids realized what was happening and made sure to drop a candy or two in his bag every time they got one. the result was now brody has a lunch paper bag full of candy and a random frizbee and pencil. He also got pegged a few times by some tootsie rolls. Boston was just excited to chase after any candy he could find and Brynden was trying to steal Brody's candy bag from his stroller seat. apparently the green and orange beads we had given him were no fun anymore.

then i come home and realize that it will be far from a lazy day after all.....

another hectic morning

So just when i think that this day will be better bc i have woken up on time, gone grocery shopping and been back before my oldest even needs to get on the bus, it all goes to pot!
Boston is still eating breakfast (and for those of you that know him, this process takes awhile.) it has been half an hour. I am putting groceries away and trying to get him to hurry as we still have to brush his teeth, gel his hair, and give him meds. His lunch has not been packed yet, but we are fnally out the door with brody in a t shirt and underwear(very white trash :) ) but he refuses to be left behind.
We sit with a sigh at the bus stop a few minutes early, no bus in sight. Then i catch sight of Boston's tshirt, and it has blue stains. Toothpaste apparently. I tell him to run home and get a wipee as we only live 5 houses down, and he takes off running. (he looks a bit like sponge bob when he runs) and of course there comes the bus barreling down the corner. I yell at him to come back but either he doesnt hear me or he thinks he is lightening fast. (probably the latter) and is soon out of sight, and then back in sight with wipee in hand and is racing up the street as fast as his little legs will carry him. he makes in time, but i am unable to help him wipe it off bc he needs to board the bus so i send him on his way with an i love you and dont forget to clean your shirt!!

So today was busy as always, I just cant seem to find out where all the time goes.

It started out horrible with Brody waking up at 4 am sick and crying with a fever so hot you could fry eggs on his head. Then we stayed up until 530 when he finally fell back asleep. The whole time i was praying that Brynden wouldnt wake up. then the alarm goes off at 630 i have already fed the baby, dont remember doing it but it must have been done as he is still not awake yet. Taylor is still sleeping even though he should have been up 5 minutes ago and now he is late! I cant even keep my eyes open long enough to tell him to get up. And the day has just begun. I have approximately 30 minutes before i need to get Boston out of bed so that we can start the summer school process of eating breakfast brushing teeth and getting dressed all before the bus arrives. Have fed baby again by this time, boston is has gotten on the bus and Brody is still sleeping.

just when i think that maybe i might be able to go back to bed since the baby is now back asleep, Brody has woken up and i have resigned myself to another one of those days. I contact my partner in crime, linda and make plans to trek (yes trek, since it is a mile away) to the park. we make it there in one sweaty piece. play 3 hours worth of scrabble and walk back, compeltely drained.

still cannot sleep as Boston has not come home from summer school and then next thing i know it is 630pm and where has all the time gone? Seems like ia m always cleaning and doing laundry and yellng at the boys to play nice and to share. That I am always feeding the baby and that things are never done. When my husband comes home, and asks what such and such is doing out, my response is "just leave it there and when i am done, i will take care of it" like i am not busy enough! Its the dishes are still in the sink, the laundry not put away, the strollers still out, where is the extra toothpaste, mom, brody wont let me watch tv. Its enough to make a woman go mad!

But at the end of the day, when all the monkeys have been put to bed, and its just me and my husband, hanging out, the dishes are usually done and the house relatively clean, i think to myself, this wasnt such a bad day after all.

I am blessed with healthy children, a loving husband, a roof over our heads and the money to buy things that we need and most often than not, things that we want.

And i sigh, get in bed and turn the lights out, ready to start this whole thing all over again tomorrow.

first time

This is the first time i have ever blogged! Hard to believe i know, in this day and age. so as a first timer, a virgin, if you will, please bear with me while i introduce myself. My name is april. You will learn that i am blunt and loyal and that i always want whats fair. That is my major rant in life, its just "not fair". Now this is not to say i am a whiner. Bc i dont whine and i dont like people who whine, its just to say that i want things in life to be fair. And they never are, i think the world would be a better place, if we always did what was fair and what was right. sometimes those things arent the same. Enjoy